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FOUR THE STORY PROLOGUE.?At a gathering of cronies In the village of Liberty, Maine, Jim Saladine listens to the history of the neighboring Hostile Valley?its past tragedies, its superb fishing streams, and. above all. the mysterious, enticing "Huldy." wife of Will Ferrln. Interested, he drives to the Valley for a day's fishing, though admitting to himself his chief desire is to see the reputedly glamorous Huldy Ferrln. CHAPTER V!?Amy Carey commits suicide. Before Huldy's return Zeke Dace had been showing her attention. and his defection (he has succumbed completely to Huldy's wiles) Is believed to have led Amy to tajce her life. Saladine comes to the valley. Bad roads cause him to aton at the Ferrln farm, where he meets Huldy. She endeavors to detain him. but remembering what he has heard of the woman, he is uneasy. and leaves her. to fish an adjacent stream. CHAPTER VII JENNY went down brook that morning to do Marm Pierce's bidding In the matter of the Illy root. The girl made her way to a pool She knew, with a rip of singing water at the head, crawled out on a log and lay at length, reaching deep Into the water with a heavy kitchen knife to loose one of the roota from the mucky bottom. Saladlne came upon her while she was thus engaged. Along any well-fished stream | there le snre to be a trail that will lead even a stranger to the most ; advantageous spots from which to i try each pool. Saladlne was quick to discover such a path here. When ' he first found it, he saw a boot track in the muck, and knew that I another angler had gone down | brook this same morning. Be thought regretfully that if the other man 1iad fished the pools, the trout would be not so readily responsive now; and as he went on, he began to wonder about this man who had gone downstream before . him, and to watch alertly, waiting to overtake the other. But It was not a man whom pres> ently he encountered, but a woman, lying along a log which extended Into one of the pools, with her head lower than her heels, her ankles I crossed, and her heels toward hlra. j While he checked In his tracks, still and astonished, she brought | up out of the water an object which he recognized; one of the thick j fleshy root-stocks of the water Illy. ' She washed it clean, and then she ' rose to her hands and knees on the ! log, and sat back on her heels, and so came to her feet and turned to j face Jim on the bank behind her here. Her dark eyes widened at sight ! r%f him nnrl .71m Innfcfvl nt hor vvlfh - to ( ISC . 1 : as s! e j (lid so, Saladinc came running j l around the house to take shelter on j the porch; and Jenny called over I her shoulder: "Granny, here's that man I see j down brook!" They saw him pass | ! the windows and go toward the I ! kitchen door, and the girl made !, haste to open to him there. , When Saladine thus saw Jenny j ] ! again, he was surprised afresh at i ( : her beauty, and amused at this secI ond encounter. The rain had wet- i I ted him. j i a* pleasurable appreciation. The beauty which she wore was not a j simple matter of hair and lips and eyes, of coloring and conformation. , She was, Saladine thought, illumined and made radiant by some inward glory. He told her: "I didn't look to run j Into anyone, this far from the road." j "It's not far to where I live," she said simnlv- and she asked: "Pimp anything?" . I "Not much," he said apologetitfal- ! ly. "Some one fished down through 1 ahead of mo. That'd scare the trout. I see his tracks. Likely he passed you?" "There's a steam mill working, I down below," she reflected. "Likely it was one of the men from there." , She was clearly uneasy. "I've got to go," she decided, and before he could speak to detain her, she was gone. She vanished among the trees, and he had an impression of an almost musical harmony as she moved. The girl set out for home swiftly, disturbed by this encounter, her eyes watchful of the woods around. She came back to the house, and ] Alarm Pierce saw her uneasiness and asked: "What happened, .Tenny? See some one?" "A man, down brook," Jenny explained. "Fishing, he was." She hesitated. "He didn't bother me," she said. "He was kind of like Will, big, and steady. But he said he'd seen tracks all down the brook, along the path. I didn't know who might be around." "This man. did he look like he might be from Augusta?" Jenny shook her head. "No, more like folks around here," she declared. "But no one I ever see before." They exhausted the subject presently, and must by and by have forgotten it. But a little before noon, when he was done fishing, Saladine, mistaking Will Ferrin's directions and seeking the road to Carey's, took the way in to Marm Pierce's farm instead, and so came to the house divided. Marm Pierce and Jenny were in the dining room when rain suddenly began to fall Jenny "Come In and set," Jenny Invited I ^ j him. "Till the rain's done. Yo're |, | soaked through I" She pushed the [ | screen door wide. | "I'll drip on your floors," Saladine i 1 pointed out. "And it's not cold I j j I'll stay here on the porch till it } ] passes. Then maybe you can put j, me on the way to Carey's." | ( "Come in, come in!" Marm Pierce | Insisted. "Water won't hurt the floors, and you'll catch your death [ ( out there!" 1 So he leaned the loose sections , of his disjointed rod against the ; weather-boarded wall and stepped J ( into the kitchen. "I fished down 11 brook, after I saw you," he said to j j the girl. "It's all a bog, below j, there. I got enough of that, and , cut back up to the road. Will Fer- , rin told me to take the first road i, right ..." < When he spoke that name, the ] girl's pulse caught, then pounded In , a Quicker beat. To think suddenly ' of Will could always shake her long . composure. She stepped hack, into j j the shadowed end of the kitchen by ' , the sink; but Marm Pierce?she i ] had put aside her knitting?came j ( out from the dining room and said j ( briskly: I ] "Chunk up the fire, Jenny," and I ( to .Tim: "You get up close and dry." j , Jenny obeyed, glad of this pretext of activity; and Saladine told i . them his name and errand here, j , "The road in here fooled me," he ' j explained. "I thought It'd bring me ' ( to Carey's. It looks like a traveled road." i . 5&e nodded, with clucking chuckle. "Tis!" she agreed. "A lot of peo- j pie come in here, take it by and j large!" "Why?" Her little black eyes twinkled at | , him. "If you lived anywhere around ^ here, you'd have heard of Marm ( Pierce," she told him, a crotchety pride In her tones. "Folks come to me for doctoring. Yarbs and sim- | pies. I've healed a pile of hurts in my day. "A real doctor can't make a living here, so they coma to me, and pay 1 me with help in hay time, or they . get my wood in, and do the chores . that's too heavy for Jenny." "It must be hard for just the two 1 of you," he hazarded. , Marm I'ierce eyed him shrewdly, j "Now yo're wishing you dast ask t questions," she guessed. "You've got eyes in your head to see the looks of this house, and you've got ' a head on you to wonder about the why of it!" j She related, almost proudly, her ancient stubborn quarrel with her j brother. He said, amused: "Looks to me you cut oft your J own nose to spite your face!" "Folks get so they hanker for a , fight, around here," Marm Pierce declared. "Quarreling with your kin ^ comes natural in Hostile Valley. I take a heap of satisfaction out of ^ seeing the Win-side of this house ' go to rot and ruin. Serves him ! right, I say!" nc tuuuuu i oumuiuc aoivcu# "He sneaks back, oncet in so j often, to see to't I'm letting things alone," she said. "Or he says that's . why." Her tone was dry with scorn. Then old Marm Pierce asked: . "You say yon come In by Will's?" And at his assent, she said: "Will's a fine man! He deserves better 1" : Saladine explained: "I left my I . ! car at Will's. Mis' Ferrin showed ; me the path down to the brook." Marm Pierce's tone was suddenly ; unfriendly. "Guess likely you visited with her for a spell?" Saladine shook his head; and the other said tartly: "It's a wonder she let you get away!" There seemed no reply to this; ; but Saladine, standing by the stove, j was deeply uncomfortable. He had j caught one foot between two bowl1 ders, and had felt a sharp burning pain in his ankle. Moving a step away from the stove just now, that hurt reminded him of Its existence with a pain so sharp that he winced, and limped. The old woman looked | at him shrewdly. "Your foot hurt?" she asked. "I twisted it," he confessed, and she came to her feet with a spry alacrity. "High time you was a'telling me," she said. "I can tend that for you. S^M^own and Jake off your shoe." THE STATE PORT Pll She began to heat something In a saucepan on the stove. "How'd you ^ do It?" she asked. d He said with a smile at his own ^ clumsiness: "A fool thing. All down ^ brook today. I kept feeling as if some one was watching me. So I g kept looking back, and naturally I . stepped Into a hole." And he said watching her: "This Valley's a gloomy place for a stranger, ma'am!" She nodded. "It Is that," she , agreed. "And for folks that live here, too. I could tell you tales." r And then suddenly she became mo- r* tlonless, her head cocked, listen- ? Ing. "Heavy foot a-coming," she said softly, and looked toward the outer door. Saladine, seated, did not immedi- w ately rise; and Marm Pierce was busy, so It was Jenny who crossed to the door. " She was thus the first to see Bart, striding toward the house lr through the rain. He bore a bur- bl den in his arms, a woman. Her head hung down over his elbow, and i a' her upturned face streamed with rain. Huldy Ferrln, limp and stin and broken 1 That dark red gar- :ai ment she wore was drenched and dn shapeless now. dfi Jenny Instinctively recoiled; but an Vlarm Pierce came to (ling the door mi wide. Bart stepped up on the porch, bit panting. He crossed the threshold wl and his dripping burden stained !>u the clean scrubbed floor. IV! For an instant none spoke. Jen- all ay, like one poised for flight, backed In Into the dining room. There was a thi hideous ringing in her ears, and she ha stared at Huldy with blank, glazed wl syes. Even Marm Pierce was star- ed tied Into silence. rel Then Bart told them in explosive Im Bjaculation; "She fell off the ledge an hack of Will's. I fetched her here? i Base you could?do anything." Pii So Marm Pierce recovered her wits Je and took quick command. "Carry her les In here," she bade; and led the way ah into the dining room. Jenny moved ke aside, and Bart deposited Huldy an upon the couch against the further th< wall. Jenny saw that he was curl- ] ausly disheveled. Something ? a wl dead stub which he had brushed In ny his passage through the wood?had coi gouged three deep scratches on his i th< cheek: and the shoulder of his shirt I was torn. His garments all were thi soaked, save that across the front an pf him, where he had carried Hulda Hi In his arms, the faded blue of his wc sveralls was of a lighter hue than ale jlsewhere. Her body, pressed against his, had kept the denim there, save de: for two thin trickles, completely Us dry. He And Jenny remembered that ledge | where she had seen Huldy, lying tei in the sun, on a day long ago; yei and she remembered, shudderlngly, wo the steep declivity below. no Then Bart was speaking, still ag panting a little. sa' "I was fishing," he said. "Down lid below Will's place. Heard her let wa nit a screech, and then a kind of ? thump; and I scrabbled up to the foot of the ledge and there she x was. I 'low she's dead and done for," he confessed. "But I never took time to think of that!" Marm Pierce nodded. "Aye, done for, finally," she said In low, almost triumphant tones. "I could've lugged her home, up | die hill," Bart admitted. "But It's I steep, and I thought you might do j something. It's some further over liere than up to Will's; but it's eager going. Looked to me I could get her here as quick as there!" He was rubbing his right hand with his left, and Jenny saw that :he right was bruised and swollen, i split across one knuckle. "Yon hurt your hand," she suggested huskily. "Fell on it; fell and landed on i rock," Bart agreed. The girl turned toward the conch; she stood beside it, her back against the i^all, her hands spread at her sides and her palms pressing agalqst the plaster. She looked down at :he hurt woman over her shoulder, sidewise, with wide eyes; tier lips j I were white and still. Bart stood in 11 the middle of the room. "I thought first off she was alive," I tie repeated. Marm Pierce said softly to her- I self, like an old crone mumbling II some mysterious charm: "The blood I still runs!" She darted out to the I kitchen, lightly, swiftly, moving like 11 i shadow; she returned with some II white stuff in her hand, and Jj clapped this against the wound on j Huldy Ferrin's neck, from which j a thin stream flowed. She held her I hand pressed there. "Dead, ain't she?" Bart asked I huskily. "You'd best fetch Will, Bart," she directed. "What'll I tell him?" "Tell him anything yo're a mind I" j| she said impatiently. "I'd better stay here," the young II man urged. "There might be some- II thing I could do!" "I can do anything needs doing," I Saladine volunteered. He saw I Bart's glance touch his bare foot. II "I sprained my ankle down in the II woods," he explained. "Marm Pierce || was boiling up some liniment for j me." "Land!" cried the little old worn- II an. "I declare, my wits are skrim- I shaw!" She flitted to the kitchen. I "I'd be letting this boil dry in an- I other minute. Nothing stinks like II burned vinegar! What's the matter II with me?" Saladine followed her into the 11 kitchen. Bart stayed with Jenny In U the dining room. VJj ,OT, SOUTHPORT, NORT1 'Til set It back to cool, or lt'd ike the hide off you," Marm Pierce ecided, and suddenly she was busy rith another saucepan, water, some wtsts of herbs from the cabinet bove the sink. "I might try a hot teep on her chest".she whispered, alf to herself. "No good just tandlng by." And she called: "Jenny! Jenny!" The girl came softly to the door. "Jenny, you loose her clothes." [arm Pierce directed. "I'll want to lib this on her chest, soon's it's eady. Get her wet things off, easy s you can, not moving her. Get a lanket 'round her. . . Jenny tried to speak; and after minute she managed an assenting ord. "Yes, Granny," she said, and losed the door. Her knees were wavering; she lrned and set her back against the oor, and stood there weakly, lookig toward the couch where Huldy's roken body lay. So, slowly, at last she moved cross the room. Jenny approached the ta9k of inding Huldy with a deep relucice; but this was not because of i part Huldy had played in her e heretofore. She had cause ough to hate the woman, not so ich because Huldy had pre- j tpted the place In Will's heart to 1 lich the girl so long had yearned, j t because Huldy had wronged ill and flouted him and embittered i his life these later years. But 1 this hour Huldy was no longer s woman whom Jenny at once ted and despised; but only one 10 was hurt to death, and needtenderness. So after this first luctance, Jenny began the task posed upon her with gentle hands d pitying solicitude. Once while she worked Marm erce called some question, and nny answered it almost heedisly; but a moment later she was srt, watching the hurt woman enly. For Huldy had stirred; d Jenny saw a faint movement of ? other's breast But Huldy did not rouse, and len there was no more that Jencould do, she stood beside the jch, lost In dim dreams and long 1 jughts of what had been. After a long time, the pattern of ; past began to shift and change, d Jenny glimpsed the future ildy was hurt, was dying. She mid die, and Will would be left >ne. Alone, and free. And Jenny, un- 1 rstanding, felt her pulse quicken j beat, and her cheeks grow warm, j ;r eyes began to shine. She had for the moment forgot- j l Huldy, in her thought of Will; | t she still stood above the hurt ! iman, looking down at her. And w suddenly she forgot Will ain; for Huldy moved. Jenny tv her eyes half open, saw the s crack, and the eyes?blank and Lndering?stare up at the ceiling. Emsii WT W.-SOfc?Ml fjj I Take a year to pay on the neC. I. T.-RCA Victor Finance Plar Anything Colum H CAROLINA Then Huldy's eyes met Jenny^i and held them for a poise beat thai was eternity. She looked at Jenny and then her lips twisted a little li that familiar, half-insolent, half challenging smile. And from these lips came t sound, a low murmur of ironli laughter, perhaps a word. Jenny bent lower, infinitely gea tie; she whispered: "It's all right, Mis' Ferrln! We're taking care of you. Don't try t< talk, ma'am. Just rest* yourself." The smile widened, and this tim< Huldy spoke audibly. Her voice was thin and strained, yet the word* were clear enough. And they cul and burned and stung; for she said: "You can have him now!" Jenny's eyes widened at that, ai though at a blow. She recoiled faintly, her cheek crimson; bul she gathered patient strength again "Hush, ma'am," she whispered "We've sent for Will He'll be righl here. You rest yourself." Huldy's head moved faintly, at though It were terribly heavy, as though she moved It by a slow tre mendous effort Her mouth was smiling still, dry lips twisted mock ingly; and she spoke yet once more. "He's finally fixed it so's he car have you," she said clearly, in thai thin, strained, burning tone. "It was Will knocked me oft. . , She gasped and seemed to choke ?k Si "He Hit Me!" as though she would cough. Hei breath withheld, she whispered: "He hit me!" Her mouth opened wider. She seemed to strain as though In the effort to produce one further word Her lips drew tight across hei teeth. Then she coughed faintly convulsively; and her breast swelled >AD/O WITH THE NEW Iff! ' As when RCA introdu the first dynamic specks the first AC set?the I Superheterodyne, RCA i opens another era in ra You will be interested to and hear the new Mc |$j Brain instruments?deligt jp to leorn you can own om g a surprisingly low price. I1-TUBE MODEL Cll-I ?g| This 11-tube radio provides a tre |e5| dous entertainment service. Foi and domestic programs, police, ation and amateur calls ? all quencies 540 to 18,000 kcs. Sel Dial, Super-12" Speaker, Autoi "J Volume Control w I Band Spreeder, r'.1 With RCA World-Widi ?' Antenna System ; for the Ai ibus Mc Whiteville, N I WEDf , I the world In which she must hei t after dwell. A world forever shadowed by t { knowledge that Will, no matter n . der what ugly provocation, hi struck this woman down to h , destruction in the end. : Will, whom Jenny loved. Blind, spinning chaos whirled 111 . stars through the girl's thought but through this chaos like a ligl } ning stroke came her grandmot j er's voice. Marm Pierce calle from the kitchen: j "Jenny, I'm opening the door 1" j and remained distended, hollot i aching, for a long instant Till tl t mockery faded from her eyes ar s left them blank and glazed; ar j she lay still, her smile now a flxt and mirthless grin, i And there was no beauty In tb ! that had been Huldy now. t j For a space after the woma . I died, there lay in the dining room . long silence of horror and disma t i Jenny could not for her life hai I moved. But the deep silence wi i broken presently, by a sound, shai i and startling; and at the same tin - : hollow and sodden, as though i chair had overturned and fallen c a rotten floor. I Jeny heard It with half hi i mind; and a moment later si i i heard a stir in the kitchen, ar t i movement there, and voices too. Yi i J It was as though these things wei J far off, remote from her and fro > J (Continued next week) Two hundred-ten years ago tl town of Brunswick was found* in a wilderness thirteen miles ea <oi s mi m vine, now soutnport. Common sense is trie rarei commodity on the market. I A FEELING OF W\ jj)w CAMELS NEVER I &&&. j^^TIRE MV TASTE B@P'jaMKF^Ppi! Speed Flyer ameu i Three 1 Electa | On the job to I RADIO REP. i Rrirurr unnr Ri ^ nig j uui in us. We repaii ced !!o? ly. We have a dio. ;i Radio s at .... RADIOS and I ' ign , avi= ON TIME IF 8 ito, Radio oi >tor Cor orth Carolina >1 ESP AY, OCTOBER u I * Short Session OfM ?| Recorder's0,1 fid " " Only two cases were ij of here in Recorder's courttB nesday before Judge Peter ?B fee John O. Everett, eolored.'B 8 ' found guilty of disturbing >B h- ious orsh.p but jU'igmertB ! his case was suspended upo* B I ment of the cost and a y-.B $10.00. B v> Arthur Fair, colored. tvasfB 16 V ^ , guilty of assault but judgifl 1(j was withheld until the d^B >d ant could be examined bB doctor in an effort to deterB | his sanity. a Sign Welcomes I r-\ Yacht Fisiffl 13 A large red. white and B "P sign erected on the banks o'B ie inland waterway by CaptaiiH a M. Wells and Son is the fl ,n welcome greeting from ScutB to travelers who pass thnH H here by way of the canaL 10 This sign was erected snH ld days ago and has caused seB comments from visiting yfl I A D M i n i s i i Having qualified as aiiminis^M of tse estate of L. \V. Gams. <t?H i ed. late of Brunswick countv, j Carolina, this is to notify all id having claims against the said . ?Q exhibit them to the undersiiisM Southport, North Carolina, before October 18. MM. or thh* 1 will be pleaded in bar ot recoM i ai\ persons indebted to the said e^H J will mease make immediate COSTLIER TOBACcJ Radio I icians I give you gooi I AIR SERVICE I tdio troubles to I r them prompt-1 i large stock of I parts. I (EPAIRS SOLD I vnn prefer i * v V * * ? r Bicycle I npanyI
State Port Pilot (Southport, N.C.)
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Oct. 16, 1935, edition 1
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