AN ULTIMATUM
A veil of azure morning mist lingered at the apex of Henhawk's knob. A
young eagle--aggressively bold in his youth--sallied forth into the
mystic dawn, setting himself high on Eagle Crown rock, and surveyed the
dim world with a challenge in his blinkless agate eye. The air was
fragrant with the perfume of a thousand blossoms.
Splashes of crimson and gold dappled the east, and a great sun shot its
lances of molten glory beyond the mountain-tops.
Before the sun showed half its russet disk the deputy sheriff sat his
horse at the witch-elm block in front of the Lutts cabin, preparatory to
departure.
The Lutts household, including Slab, was on hand with hospitable
farewells--though little Bud hung back suspiciously.
At no time during the sheriff's stop had Cap Lutts uttered a word of
reference to the business that had brought the officer to his door. Nor
had the sheriff broached the subject again. With keen understanding and
quick insight he waited patiently for the answer to his mission.
But now, as he sat his horse on the verge of departure, he looked at old
Lutts expectantly and with direct inquiry in his eyes. Lutts caught the
import, and answered with small concern.
"Oh, yes! Yo' jest tell th' sheriff an' them revenuers down below thet
ef they want th' ole man bad 'nough, t' cum up an' root em out."
The deputy knew this was final, and as the old moonshiner's great hand
closed over his in parting the officer secretly hoped that the arm of
the law would fall short of the Lutts domicile.
"Well, captain, I'm afraid they'll start something below--especially
that man over from Frankfort--that Burton. He's awful determined, and he
blames us some. Good-by!"
A short distance away the officer pulled up short and, turning in his
saddle, beckoned to the old man.
The deputy leaned over and spoke in undertones, as though the rocks and
trees had ears.
"Captain," he asked significantly, "is that fellow, Jutt Orlick, a
friend of yours? Remember, I haven't said a word, captain; not a word!"
For a full minute the old man stood looking after the rider. Then a new
light was added to his fixed suspicion of Jutt Orlick.
* * * * *
High noon of the following day found Orlick riding slowly, with loose
rein, up the twisted trail toward the Lutts cabin. His horse was
lathered and blown.
He had covered the rugged distance from the junction since dawn, where
he had held all-night counsel with Peter Burton, the revenuer.
With astuteness and cunning Orlick had instigated a conspiracy that
would have done credit to a city-bred malefactor, and for which Burton
praised him extravagantly and, incidentally, liquorously.
Burton had offered to secure Orlick an appointment as deputy marshal in
the eighth district at Danville as recompense for his espionage and
treason against his people. But even Orlick's audacious spirit cast the
thought of this honor out of his mind decisively, and not without a
shudder.
Providing the raid succeeded, upon the plea that Orlick feared the
Luttses, Burton had pledged himself to keep Lem and old Captain Lutts in
jail to the last technical hour. He further promised to frustrate any
attempt at communication with the Lutts faction and intercept any
messages that they might attempt to launch from the prison.
Burton confided to Orlick that his chief aim now was to capture and take
the Luttses to Frankfort, out of the jurisdiction of the county, and
isolate them from the subtle influences that had always favored them in
the surrounding counties.
The revenuer admitted that he entertained grave doubts as to taking old
Captain Lutts alive; but he hoped to capture Lem Lutts, at any rate, and
break the boy's stoic spirit and coerce him into disclosing the
whereabouts of the old still that had flooded Hellsfork with moonshine
for two decades.
But Burton did not know Lem as Orlick knew him, and to Orlick the
prospect of a long term of confinement for Lem Lutts was very pleasing.
Notwithstanding, Orlick knew that Lem would get out of jail
subsequently, and that he--Orlick--might by then be a marked man.
Orlick was fully aware that when the suspicions already against him on
Hellsfork had shaped themselves into convincing proofs of treason, his
life would be worth nothing in Kentucky.
The Lutts faction would follow him even into the blue-grass precincts.
They would dog him to the very threshold of the sheriff's office. His
undoing would be swift and certain--and pitiless.
But all this was now a remote contingency in the face of his unbridled
passion for Belle-Ann, and it was with a sense of bravado that he
realized it was a mere matter of time before the calamity of exposure
would overtake him.
But against the advent of this unerring nemesis, he banked on at least a
few weeks, and probably a few months, during which, he told himself, he
might win out and have Belle-Ann ensconced safely in some big city, far
removed from the arm of the law and the limits of Kentucky.
After that he did not care.
He had cast the die, and had staked his life upon the outcome. If by any
ill luck the outcome demanded his life, he stood ready to pay the toll.
That Lem Lutts should never get Belle-Ann he had fully determined.
He regretted that Peter Burton had not killed Lem long ago, as he had
always hoped.
He would have risked the chance and steered Burton up to the Lutts
still, but he could not do so for the ample reason that he did not know
where it was. He had known, so long as he had remained a mountaineer in
good standing; but old Captain Lutts had moved the still in the early
stages of Orlick's mysterious sojourns, and the faction had not since
volunteered to tell him its whereabouts, and he was loath to jeopardize
his own skin in looking for it.
However, while Orlick was serving Burton, he had served himself doubly.
The smooth, unruffled manner in which his plans were unfolding up to
date filled him with high glee, and his spirits soared to the skies.
Wild and desolate as this wilderness country is, it is nevertheless
almost impossible for an outsider to invade its precincts without his
presence being mysteriously communicated to the denizens of the hills.
Whenever an invasion is accomplished secretly it is invariably
engineered by some traitor who knows every nook and cranny in the
mountains.
But Orlick had determined to double-cross Burton and circumvent his
plan, if Belle-Ann manifested any substantial symptom of requiting his
suit for her hand or yielded to his persuasions.
To-day as Orlick halted in the shade of a poplar to rest his spent
horse, he rolled a cigarette contemplatively with a half smile on his
lips. If Belle-Ann favored him, he told himself that he would remove
every seeming obstacle that promised to come between them. This was a
compact ratified with himself when he rolled the cigarette and smiled;
and if he could not win her, he would at least deprive her of Lem Lutts,
through the medium of a quick, desperate coup, the details of which he
had already confided to Burton.
As Orlick lit his cigarette, cast the match away, and hooked his right
leg over the saddle-horn, he gave himself up to the favorite meditation
upon which his fancy had fed for months. With a vain-glorious grunt he
regarded his new trooper's outfit.
He was exuberantly conscious of the great roll of bank-notes bulging in
his pocket. And, too, it was all easy money. He confessed this as he
muttered above his breath:
"Dead easy--easier 'n easy!"
In truth, he had never imagined that one man could get hold of so much
money so easily as he had done since his lucky affiliations with a
certain one-eyed gentleman known as Red Herron, who engineered a
nocturnal business in Louisville.
Money was a necessary adjunct, especially to a lover, and lent an
atmosphere of reality to this lover's stock of artifices.
Moreover, Orlick nurtured a robust desire to see Belle-Ann's physical
beauty adorned and enhanced with smart attire in emulation of the
handsome girls that met his admiring eyes in the streets of Louisville.
Orlick's fancy, furthermore, had the hardihood to picture his wedding
tour, with Belle-Ann as his wife.
Their trip on a luxurious Pullman train to Omaha! Ah, how the people
would stare at this lovely, stylish girl--his wife! And he had the money
in his pocket at this moment, and knew where to get more.
So excited was he by this scintillating dream of requited love that, as
if to hasten to its glorious reality, he threw his foot suddenly into
the stirrup, rolled the spur against the horse's ribs, and proceeded
toward the Lutts abode, flushed with a mighty confidence.
Nearing the cabin, Orlick's brow grew black as he thought that Lem
Lutts's possible presence at home might thwart his conquest.
A young hound, with a fore-leg bandaged in splints, lay in the shade
near the horse-block. The dog, emitting barks of alarm, sidled up on
three legs and sniffed suspiciously.
The Lutts' dogs knew Orlick well enough, but they had always met him
with growls of distrust, and had never become reconciled to his
presence.
Orlick cast his eyes about, but he saw no signs of the family. He
stripped the horse; and, picking up a cob, made shift to clean the
animal's hind quarters, where the lather had congealed into hard, salty
cakes, while his eyes were searching the premises for the object of his
visit.
Leaving the horse to follow his own will, Orlick sat down on the bench
and waited.
He remained there for a full half-hour, in compliance with ethics of the
mountains, which prescribes that a caller shall wait at a distance,
especially where there are womenfolk, until invited to advance.
When the dogs bark and the inmates fail to appear there is all the more
reason why he should wait.
With the peculiar instinct a horse has for locating water, Orlick's
animal had taken himself off at a brisk trot toward the log stable.
Missing his horse, Orlick looked about and caught a fleeting glimpse of
him through the vista of trees, and, knowing that if he got to the water
in his heated condition he would founder, Orlick dashed away in pursuit.
Thus it happened that he came unexpectedly upon Belle-Ann, who stood at
the horse-trough, urging Orlick's animal away from the water. Orlick
stopped short, regarded her confusedly; then, removing his trooper's
hat, executed a bow and smirked copiously.
His heart thumped wildly in that instant. Each time he saw Belle-Ann he
vowed mentally that she was more beautiful than before. The sight of her
invariably threw him into a state of nervous flurry, and drove from his
mind the pretty things he had previously decided to say to her.
Small wonder then that he stood abashed before her. Never in all his
travels had he seen her equal.
"Yo' wusn't jest a lookin' fo' me--eh--Belle-Ann?" he managed to say
awkwardly. She scanned him deprecatingly.
"No--I jest wusn't," she agreed. "Th' boys hain't home, Orlick," she
added pointedly, seating herself upon an inverted wagon-bed near by.
Orlick sauntered over and sat down, too, now regaining his poise.
"I didn't know I wus comin', either--till a short spell 'fore I
started," he said tentatively.
Belle-Ann eyed the horse, now standing under a poplar, too tired to
crop.
"Yo' must hev started frum th' ocean, didn't yo'?" she asked, with a
gesture toward the animal.
"Aw--he's soft, Belle-Ann. I 'lowed I'd rest em up a bit--till th' boys
cum," he ended lamely.
"Why don't yo'-all buy a mountain hoss? Thes hoss wasn't cut out fo'
thes country," observed Belle-Ann.
"Mabby hit's 'cause I hain't aimin' t' stay in thes country, Belle-Ann."
She shot a quick look at him. He met her eyes and noted a glint of
suspicion in them, so he hurried to forestall any utterance in reference
to his mysterious sojourns the past two years.
"Yo' see, I'm layin' off t' git married, Belle-Ann," he explained,
watching her oval features narrowly; "an' when I do, I 'low t' settle
down below, whar th' folks stan's t' give a honest man a chanst."
Belle-Ann turned wondering eyes upon him.
She had never before heard anything coming from Orlick but arrogant
self-praise; hence she marveled at his meek voice and doleful aspect.
"Whut makes yo' look so sorry--air yo're gal so powerful ugly?" Try as
she would, she could not restrain a sudden burst of mirth, and she
laughed outright.
Now, if Belle-Ann's accents were soothing and captivating in speech,
verily, her laugh rivaled the rippling sweetness of the lute. It trailed
across Orlick's mood like a tonic and fired his face with a hot flush of
anticipation.
"Ugly!" he ejaculated--"ugly--no, Belle-Ann. She air th' all-fired'st
purttiest gal in all Kentucky--an' she hain't fer away, either, I 'low!"
Saying this, he came perilously near to overrunning the ethics of the
mountains and seizing her in his arms and smothering her with his
kisses.
With an effort he restrained himself.
His vehement words had startled her. She scrutinized his countenance
keenly. What she saw brought the hot blood to her cheeks and left no
doubt in her mind as to the significance of his eulogy and his
impassioned eyes.
His look was an insult. She rose and tossed the elf-curls back from her
dimpled face. Orlick sat a moment speechless, his mouth open, and
studied the graceful length of her back.
Now she faced him again and spoke, and her words carried a volume of
reproach.
"Orlick," she began, "why do yo'-all cum t' see th' boys fo'--when
you're a drinkin'?"
By way of denial he suddenly gave vent to a raucous guffaw and whipped
his knee with his hat, which artifice he calculated would enhance his
prestige off-hand. On the contrary, his strident laugh grated strangely
upon the girl's mood.
"Drinkin'--drinkin'!" he cried out, amazed. "Why, Belle-Ann, I hain't
teched a drap o' liquor fo' six months! An' what's a heap sight mo',
Belle-Ann, I hain't never a goin' t'!"
Here he stood up and raised his hand high over his head. "An' I hope
Gawd'll paralyze me daid ef I ever touch th' stuff agin!" he declared
with a profound, solemn flourish, calculated to emphasize a pledge.
A sudden look of pity grew in the girl's eyes as she studied his face, a
look which Orlick mistook for interest.
"Yo' hain't a gittin' down on me like th' tuther fools, air yo',
Belle-Ann?"
Belle-Ann smiled ambiguously, lifted her pretty arched brows, and
centered her azure eyes upon a red-head which at that instant was
hammering a hole into a dead sycamore hard by. Orlick sighed.
"Yo' orten t' git down on a feller lessen he's done somethin' pesky," he
resumed tentatively. "What hev I done more'n cum an' go peaceable--an'
make more money than any of 'em? Yo' see, Belle-Ann, our people hain't
got no use fer a feller whut's got spunk enough t' git out o' th'
mountains an' make money. Hit's hard draggin' when a feller's tryin' t'
do right an' everybuddy ag'in em."
His words stopped. Belle-Ann gazed his way. Orlick looked like a martyr,
the very picture of persecuted righteousness. The left corner of his
mouth, usually tilted, descended in emulation of its mate.
His woebegone eyes followed the sky-line, and he appeared to be on the
verge of an oral prayer.
Belle-Ann's tender, unsophisticated heart was momentarily swayed with
compassion. She glanced covertly at his averted, forlorn face, and her
frigidity thawed a trifle as she was cognizant of an element of truth in
Orlick's claims.
She knew that a mountaineer was respected and eligible only while he
stayed closely in the mountains.
Orlick sat rigid, immobile, with eyes afar and apparently utterly
oblivious of Belle-Ann's presence at that moment. She walked back to the
wagon-bed.
Her low, dulcet voice roused him out of his lethargy.
"Orlick," she said, "why don't yo'-all stop traipsin' round an' snookin'
below--an' cum Sabbath an' jine pap's church? Don't yo'-all want t' be a
Christian?"
If all the sins of Orlick's past had taken life and come up out of the
ground at his feet to confront him he would have been less shocked. He
flushed guiltily.
He started perceptibly and squirmed in speechless discomfort.
Belle-Ann's wide, clear eyes were upon him, and as he hesitated her lips
parted to speak.
"Eh?" he gurgled.
"I say--don't yo'-all----"
As though not daring to hear that seductive voice repeat its query, he
spoke up hastily.
"Why, sho', Belle-Ann!" he blurted in confusion. "O' course, I'd like t'
be a Christian--an' I'll sho' be at th' ded'cation Sabbath. Belle-Ann,
air yo' down on me 'cose I go below t' make money what I can't make th'
likes of hyarbouts?"
Orlick suddenly produced the roll of bank-notes, and, shuffling them up,
rained them down in one greenish, crisp pile of opulence upon the
wagon-bed.
This unexpected spectacle staggered the girl's senses for the moment.
She had never seen so much money in all her life before. Her eyes grew
round with astonishment.