As the snarling restiveness moderated to curiosity under Kinnard's
uncouth forcefulness and seemingly candid words, he repeated the
mendacious story of his outraged righteousness, when he had learned
that in his tavern the murder of a gentleman from the lowlands had been
attempted. His place, he pointed out, was open to all comers--the law
required that he extend its entertainment to every man who paid the
price. He himself had not been present in time to prevent the outbreak.
Had he entertained a prior and guilty knowledge of the plot, he would
scarcely have interfered last night. He would not have come to-day with
his assurance of sympathy and his proffer of aid into a nest of
swarming hornets.
Mr. Henderson's life had been attempted by some unknown foe once
before, he reminded them. Apparently it had been his misfortune to make
enemies as well as friends. The speaker paused and shook his head
regretfully.
"He come hyar a stranger amongst us an' war tuck in by Lone Stacy, a
man we all trusts--a man we all loves. Why should ther hand of anybody
hev been lifted erginst him? Ther stranger thet sojourns hyarabouts,
mindin' his own business, gin'rally walks safe. Hit's a question I
kain't answer.... Mebby hit war because Mr. Henderson fell inter ther
error of preachin' too strong a doctrine of change.... I only knows
this much myself: thet on ther night he got hyar I heered him talk thet
a-way--an' outen sheer friendliness I warned him thet amongst us simple
folks thar'd be some thet wouldn't take kindly ter sich notions. He
aimed ter show us how wrong our idees war; notions of life thet our
grand-sires hes fostered fer two hundred y'ars an' upwards. He aimed
ter undo in a twinklin' all thet's growed into our bones an' blood an'
free life endurin' ginerations--an' ter _civilize_ us. It war
considerable undertakin'."
Again a low growl ran through his audience, but this time its
indignation was not aimed at the speaker.
"I've even heered men claim thet Mr. Henderson come up hyar seekin' ter
rob us in ther interest of ther railroad, though I don't sceercely like
ter believe hit--ner even ter repeat hit."
Once more the blond head was shaken in sad regretfulness.
"We've done dwelt hyar, cut off from ther rest of ther world fer
ginerations. We hain't got much eddication, but we're honest an'
independent an' all we asks is ter be left alone ter work out our own
salvation. In other times ther feud split us up into enemies, but since
ther truce war made we've consorted peaceable." For a space he paused
to gaze meditatively at the spear-like timber fringe against the
fleckless blue.
"Ef Mr. Henderson unthoughtedly meddled an' somebody acted rash," went
on Towers easily, "sorry es we all feels fer hit, an' det'armined es we
all air ter punish thet person in full accordance with ther law--still
hit warn't no Stacy thet was attacked. Mr. Henderson lays thar a-dyin'
an' fer him I hain't got no feelin' but charity--but he warn't no
Stacy! Ther folks down below, whar he hails from, will take plentiful
pains ter avenge his death. Ter them, we hain't nothin' but benighted
barbarians of ther bloody hills--an' he war an eddicated gentleman!
Hit'll be a turrible pity ef we neighborly men goes ter war ergin over
any false suspicion."
Kinnard swept his hands outward in a gesture like a benediction and
stepped back. Where slurring growls had greeted him he left a silence
which testified to the telling effect of his words. Their anger now was
readier to burn into indignation against the invader who had sought to
alter their life.
Though the young Stacy had interrupted by no word or sound, there was
something in his stillness of deportment that presaged storm ready to
burst. As he came to the edge of the bowlder his movements had the
smooth elasticity of a panther--and when he stood silent for a moment
his eyes rained lightning bolts of intensity.
"I've done stood here without interruptin' an' listened at Kinnard
Towers' talk," he said, and the contempt of his tone was as stinging as
a rawhide lash. "'Most all of what he has told ye, I believes ter be
lies an' if they be, I aims ter have a full reckonin', but afore I
begins I wants ter charge ye all in full solemnity thet we've pledged
him a safe journey home--an' ef harm comes ter him afore he gits thar
our name stands disgraced ter ther end of time. He's a hirer of
murderers an' he's fattened offen poverty an' ther gallows air too good
fer him--but a pledge is a bond!"
Bear Cat wheeled for a moment to face Kinnard Towers himself as he made
this assertion, then he proceeded with the crescendo of a gathering
tempest.
"He says thet ther murder of Jerry Henderson hain't no consarn of
your'n, and he tells ye thet Henderson's under suspicion of seekin' ter
cheat ye outen yore birthright. Ef he believed thet on good reason an'
held his counsel thus far he aided an' abetted ther robbery. But I
believes thet's a lie, too, because ef Jerry Henderson sought ter rob
ye an' plunder ye successfully all he needed ter do war to _make a
deal_ with Kinnard Towers, fust.
"This man thet rules thet country from a boozin' ken, whar' ther stench
of infamy pizens ther air, tells ye he stands fer law--an' I tells ye
thet his kind of law makes all decent men want ter be outlaws. Judges
an' juries hyarabouts does his biddin' ter ther damage of every honest
man, because they walks in terror of him--an' debauches themselves ter
hold his favor! He flies high an' his wings are strong--he passes fer
an eagle--but he feeds on carrion."
Bear Cat swept into a stinging arraignment of the chicanery with which
he charged Towers, piling invective upon anathema with the passionate
sweep of a tornado. As faces that had listened to Towers with attention
hardened again, Kinnard braced himself and forced a satirical smile.
"This man aimed ter git Jerry Henderson from ther fust day he come
hyar--not because ther stranger sought ter feel ther way fer ther
railroad, but because he dared ter talk fer enlightenment: for schools
whar yore children could grow inter straight manhood, an' roads thet
could take yore crops and timber ter market. Sich open speech didn't
suit Kinnard, hyar, because when folks has knowledge they ceases ter be
victims ter his greed and cunnin'.
"Jerry Henderson spoke out his belief an' he was marked down by Kinnard
Towers fer death. He's a-dyin' now."
A low and dangerous murmur ran over the crowd, but Bear Cat Stacy
stilled it with his raised hands.
"I believes thet Kinnard connived with ther Judas revenuer to jail my
paw expressly ter cl'ar ther road fer this murder. Ef thet's true he
didn't jest attack a furriner, but he affronted every Stacy an' busted
ther truce ter boot! Till I kin prove what I suspicions, I aims ter
hold my hand; but I stud in Brother Fulkerson's house last night amids
ther ashes of sorrow an' I've done dedicated what's left of my life ter
one aim.
"I don't know whether I'll hev holp or go single-handed, but as
Almighty God hears me, I aims ter clean up these hills! I aims thet
'stid of grumblin' like old grannies because our fields air littered
with rock an' our roads air all dirt, we shell take ther rock outen
ther fields an' put hit on ther roads. I aims thet every child thet
hankers fer enough larnin' ter raise himself above ther level of beasts
shell hev a school whar he kin git hit. I aims thet when yore baby
falls sick or thar's a bornin' at yore house, ther doctor kin git
thar--in time!"
He paused, and his audience, swept by the abandon of his extemporaneous
fervor, fell into an excited approval. The magic of inherent strength
and sheer personality was at work upon them.
"Before sich things es them kin be brought ter pass," began the speaker
again in a voice dropping suddenly to stern calm, "ther wrath of
numerous folks will flare up ter murder-hate--because thar's a
stumblin' block in ther path thet's ancient an' thet hes got ter be
man-powered loose. Betwixt us an' betterment stands ther thing thet all
our troubles springs from--an' though hit don't profit but one man in
every score, yit thar be some amongst ye thet'll die fer hit!"
He stopped and looked down into faces puzzled and uncomprehending. Eyes
turned up to the speaker out of lean and serious visages, waiting for
his next sentence, and he himself stood there for a moment or two in a
silence which was as much an emphasis as a blank margin which stresses
the conspicuousness of print.
His own face, still drawn with the travail of last night's gamut of
emotion, and his figure motionless with the pent-up dynamics of a
tight-wound coil, carried the impression of action presently to burst
with a force beyond governing. They had always thought of him as a man
bred for action but short of speech; a man bound like themselves by the
constrictions which generations of taciturn ancestors had laid upon
fluency, damming it into difficulty. But now self-consciousness was as
absent from his attitude as though the torrential quality of his
thoughts and words came from an external force sweeping through him and
speaking through him.
Abruptly he thrust a hand into the breast pocket of his coat--a coat
torn recently by bullets meant for his heart--and drew out a thing
familiar to every man in that assemblage: a flat flask of colorless
glass, filled with a fluid as white as itself. He held the thing high
above his head, and ripped out his words with a crackling force.
"Thar's ther enemy thet's laid hits curse on the men an' women of
these-hyar mountings! Thar's ther thing thet's hatched from ther worm
of their still--ther pizen thet breeds in ther la'rel! _That's_ what
turns kindly men inter brutes an' wives inter widders an' children
inter orphans! Thar's ther thing thet hes made ther purest blood in all
America bear ther repute afore ther rest of ther world of a people of
bloody outlaws!
"Hit's bottles like thet thet hes shut ther doors of our country
against progress an' prosperity--an' barred out ther future from ther
hills. Hit's bottles like thet thet hes chained us ter ther dead past
when our kinsmen down below war a-marchin' on ter advancement. Hit's
ther false idee thet a man hes a license ter break ther law in
blockadin', even ter ther hurt of them thet don't blockade, thet's
carried along with hit a contempt fer all other law--an' raised up a
spirit of murder an' lay-wayin'."
As he paused again for a breathing space, still holding high the flask
above his head, he might have read a warning in the clouding of pupils
and the tightening of lips; in the out-thrusting of jaws and the
stiffening of shoulders. But these indications of hostile sentiment
seemed only to bring a more fiery hotness to his words and his voice.
"I made this licker myself," he declared. "I made hit up thar in ther
thickets. My paw lies in jail now fer doin' ther same thing. Many's
ther night--an' ther day, too--thet I've laid up thar drunk with ther
pizen thet I've brewed--but no man will ever see me drunk ergin!
"I've carried this flask in my pocket whar I could feel hit a-layin'
against my heart--ever since ther day I quit. I've carried hit thar so
thet thar wouldn't never be a time, day or night, when hit couldn't hev
ther chance ter lick me, ef so be hit proved bigger an' stronger then
me. I wasn't askin' no favors of ther worm of ther still--an' now I
hain't a-goin' ter give hit none! Thar's been times when my throat
scalded me an' my belly tormented me--when I felt like as ef I'd burn
an' shrivel ef I didn't uncork hit an' drink. But I hain't never teched
hit since then--an' now I kin laugh at hit. Now I know that Satan
helped me ter make hit--an' I'm a-goin' ter make war on hit till I
stomps hit out or hit kills me!"
Bear Cat Stacy, with that quick gesture so often seen in the hills,
raised the flask to his mouth and jerked out the cork with his
teeth--then he spat the stopper out of his mouth, and with hand again
raised high, inverted the flask so that the contents gurgled out in a
thin stream and, in the dead silence, the blubbering sound of the
emptying was as if the thing itself was giving up its life with a sob
of protest.
Then dashing down the bottle and shattering it on the rocks, the young
man broke out with a crescendo of vehemence.
"What you men hev seed me do with thet-thar flask of blockade licker
thet I made myself, ye're a-goin' ter see me do in like fashion with
all the rest this side of Cedar Mounting. Ye're a-goin' ter see me lift
ther curse thet's been on us like a lunacy an' a pestilence. Ye're
goin' ter see me smash every flask an' every bottle. Ye're goin' ter
see me empty out every jug an' knock in ther head of every kag an'
barrel, twell ther spleen of meanness an' murder runs out with ther
licker--an' a peace comes thet kin hope ter endure."
Then with abrupt and climacteric effect he wheeled and shouted to
someone who stood unseen behind the angular shoulder of the rock
itself. The next moment he lifted up and set down at his feet a spiral
thing of copper tubing which caught on its burnished coils the
brightness of the sun and gave back a red glitter.
"Ther day of hills enslaved by a copper sarpint hes done come to an
end!" he declared in a passion-shaken voice. "I aims ter do ter every
cursed one of 'em this side of Cedar Mountain what I'm goin' ter do ter
this one, hyar an' now!"
He seized up an axe which had been lying at his feet and swung it above
his head. Poised in that posture of arrested action, his final words
were defiantly thundered out.
"I've done took my oath ter hang these things like dead snakes along
ther highway fer all men ter see. They stands accountable fer poverty
an' squalor an' bloodshed. Because of ther pestilence they've brought
an' ther prosperity they've turned away--they've got ter go."
The ax crashed down in stroke after stroke upon the coiled thing at his
feet, gashing it into destruction as the crowd broke into a restive
shuffling of feet and looked on in dismay--as yet too dumfounded for
open protest.
"My God, Bear Cat's done gone crazed," whispered a man on the outskirts
of the crowd. "He's plumb fittified."
Slowly the spell of astonishment began to give way to a fuller
realization of the heresy that had been preached and which had appalled
them by its audacity. Comparatively few of them were actual moonshiners
but at other times many of them had been--and their spirit was defense
of their institutions. Yet the face of this young man, bred to their
own traditions, was fired with an ardor amazingly convincing and
dauntless. In many of the elder heads had glimmered a germ of the same
thought that Bear Cat had put into hot words; glimmered in transient
consideration, to be thrust back because the daring needed for its
expression was lacking. Here was Bear Cat Stacy boldly proclaiming his
revolutionary purpose in advance because he wished to be fair;
announcing that if need arose he would wage war on his enemies and his
friends alike in its fulfilment. It would take a bold spirit to
volunteer aid--and yet there were those whose only objection to the
crusade was its mad impracticability. There were others, too, who, as
Bear Cat had prophesied, would fight such vandal menace to the death.
So, after the first spell-bound pause, a threatening growl ran through
the crowd and then like a magpie chorus broke and swelled the babel of
discussion. Out of it came a dominating note of disappointment--almost
disgust--for the leader to whom they had loyally rallied. Kinnard
Towers stood for a while appraising their temper, then his lips parted
in a smile that savored of satisfaction.
"So Bear Cat Stacy goes dry!" he exclaimed with a contemptuous tone
intended to be generally overheard. Then in a lower voice he added for
Turner's ear alone:
"Son, ye've done made a damn' fool of yoreself, but hit hain't hardly
fer me ter censure ye. Hit suits me right well. Afore this day I feared
ye mout be troublesome ter me, but ye've done broke yore own wings.
From this time forward ye hain't nothin' but an eaglet thet kain't rise
offen ther ground. I was sensibly indignant whilst ye blackguarded me a
while ago--but now I kin look over hit. I reckon yore own people will
handle ye all right, without any interference from me."
The chief of the Towers clan turned insolently on his heel and walked
away and the crowd fell back to let him pass.