A Knight of the Cumberland Read online

  Produced by Mike Lough

  A KNIGHT OF THE CUMBERLAND

  By John Fox, Jr.

  CONTENTS

  I. The Blight in the Hills II. On the Wild Dog's Trail III. The Auricular Talent of the Hon. Samuel Budd IV. Close Quarters V. Back to the Hills VI. The Great Day VII. At Last--The Tournament VIII. The Knight Passes

  A KNIGHT OF THE CUMBERLAND

  I. THE BLIGHT IN THE HILLS

  High noon of a crisp October day, sunshine flooding the earth withthe warmth and light of old wine and, going single-file up throughthe jagged gap that the dripping of water has worn down through theCumberland Mountains from crest to valley-level, a gray horse and twobig mules, a man and two young girls. On the gray horse, I led thetortuous way. After me came my small sister--and after her and likeher, mule-back, rode the Blight--dressed as she would be for a gallop inCentral Park or to ride a hunter in a horse show.

  I was taking them, according to promise, where the feet of other womenthan mountaineers had never trod--beyond the crest of the Big Black--tothe waters of the Cumberland--the lair of moonshiner and feudsman, whereis yet pocketed a civilization that, elsewhere, is long ago gone. Thishad been a pet dream of the Blight's for a long time, and now the dreamwas coming true. The Blight was in the hills.

  Nobody ever went to her mother's house without asking to see her evenwhen she was a little thing with black hair, merry face and black eyes.Both men and women, with children of their own, have told me that shewas, perhaps, the most fascinating child that ever lived. There be somewho claim that she has never changed--and I am among them. She beganearly, regardless of age, sex or previous condition of servitude--shecontinues recklessly as she began--and none makes complaint. Thus wasit in her own world--thus it was when she came to mine. On the waydown from the North, the conductor's voice changed from a command toa request when he asked for her ticket. The jacketed lord of thedining-car saw her from afar and advanced to show her to a seat--thatshe might ride forward, sit next to a shaded window and be free from theglare of the sun on the other side. Two porters made a rush for her bagwhen she got off the car, and the proprietor of the little hotel in thelittle town where we had to wait several hours for the train into themountains gave her the bridal chamber for an afternoon nap. From thislittle town to "The Gap" is the worst sixty-mile ride, perhaps, in theworld. She sat in a dirty day-coach; the smoke rolled in at the windowsand doors; the cars shook and swayed and lumbered around curves anddown and up gorges; there were about her rough men, crying children,slatternly women, tobacco juice, peanuts, popcorn and apple cores, butdainty, serene and as merry as ever, she sat through that ride with aradiant smile, her keen black eyes noting everything unlovely within andthe glory of hill, tree and chasm without. Next morning at home, wherewe rise early, no one was allowed to waken her and she had breakfast inbed--for the Blight's gentle tyranny was established on sight and variednot at the Gap.

  When she went down the street that day everybody stared surreptitiouslyand with perfect respect, as her dainty black plumed figure passed; thepost-office clerk could barely bring himself to say that there was noletter for her. The soda-fountain boy nearly filled her glass with syrupbefore he saw that he was not strictly minding his own business; theclerk, when I bought chocolate for her, unblushingly added extra weightand, as we went back, she met them both--Marston, the young engineerfrom the North, crossing the street and, at the same moment, a drunkenyoung tough with an infuriated face reeling in a run around the cornerahead of us as though he were being pursued. Now we have a volunteerpolice guard some forty strong at the Gap--and from habit, I startedfor him, but the Blight caught my arm tight. The young engineer in threestrides had reached the curb-stone and all he sternly said was:

  "Here! Here!"

  The drunken youth wheeled and his right hand shot toward his hip pocket.The engineer was belted with a pistol, but with one lightning movementand an incredibly long reach, his right fist caught the fellow's jawso that he pitched backward and collapsed like an empty bag. Then theengineer caught sight of the Blight's bewildered face, flushed, grippedhis hands in front of him and simply stared. At last he saw me:

  "Oh," he said, "how do you do?" and he turned to his prisoner, but thepanting sergeant and another policeman--also a volunteer--were alreadylifting him to his feet. I introduced the boy and the Blight then, andfor the first time in my life I saw the Blight--shaken. Round-eyed, shemerely gazed at him.

  "That was pretty well done," I said.

  "Oh, he was drunk and I knew he would be slow." Now something curioushappened. The dazed prisoner was on his feet, and his captors werestarting with him to the calaboose when he seemed suddenly to come tohis senses.

  "Jes wait a minute, will ye?" he said quietly, and his captors, thinkingperhaps that he wanted to say something to me, stopped. The mountainyouth turned a strangely sobered face and fixed his blue eyes on theengineer as though he were searing every feature of that imperturbableyoung man in his brain forever. It was not a bad face, but the avenginghatred in it was fearful. Then he, too, saw the Blight, his face calmedmagically and he, too, stared at her, and turned away with an oathchecked at his lips. We went on--the Blight thrilled, for she had heardmuch of our volunteer force at the Gap and had seen something already.Presently I looked back. Prisoner and captors were climbing the littlehill toward the calaboose and the mountain boy just then turned his headand I could swear that his eyes sought not the engineer, whom we leftat the corner, but, like the engineer, he was looking at the Blight.Whereat I did not wonder--particularly as to the engineer. He had beenin the mountains for a long time and I knew what this vision from homemeant to him. He turned up at the house quite early that night.

  "I'm not on duty until eleven," he said hesitantly, "and I thoughtI'd----"

  "Come right in."

  I asked him a few questions about business and then I left him and theBlight alone. When I came back she had a Gatling gun of eager questionsranged on him and--happy withal--he was squirming no little. I followedhim to the gate.

  "Are you really going over into those God-forsaken mountains?" he asked.

  "I thought I would."

  "And you are going to take HER?"

  "And my sister."

  "Oh, I beg your pardon." He strode away.

  "Coming up by the mines?" he called back.

  "Perhaps will you show us around?"

  "I guess I will," he said emphatically, and he went on to risk his neckon a ten-mile ride along a mountain road in the dark.

  "I LIKE a man," said the Blight. "I like a MAN."

  Of course the Blight must see everything, so she insisted on going tothe police court next morning for the trial of the mountain boy. The boywas in the witness chair when we got there, and the Hon. Samuel Budd washis counsel. He had volunteered to defend the prisoner, I was soon told,and then I understood. The November election was not far off and theHon. Samuel Budd was candidate for legislature. More even, the boy'sfather was a warm supporter of Mr. Budd and the boy himself mightperhaps render good service in the cause when the time came--as indeedhe did. On one of the front chairs sat the young engineer and it was aquestion whether he or the prisoner saw the Blight's black plumes first.The eyes of both flashed toward her simultaneously, the engineer coloredperceptibly and the mountain boy stopped short in speech and his pallidface flushed with unmistakable shame. Then he went on: "He had liqueredup," he said, "and had got tight afore he knowed it and he didn't meanno harm and had never been arrested afore in his whole life."

  "Have you ever been drunk before?" asked the prosecuting attorneyseverely. The lad looked surprised.

  "Co'se I have, but I ain't goin' to agin--leastwise n
ot in this heretown." There was a general laugh at this and the aged mayor rappedloudly.

  "That will do," said the attorney.

  The lad stepped down, hitched his chair slightly so that his back wasto the Blight, sank down in it until his head rested on the back of thechair and crossed his legs. The Hon. Samuel Budd arose and the Blightlooked at him with wonder. His long yellow hair was parted in the middleand brushed with plaster-like precision behind two enormous ears, hewore spectacles, gold-rimmed and with great staring lenses, and his facewas smooth and ageless. He caressed his chin ruminatingly and rolledhis lips until they settled into a fine resultant of wisdom, patience,toleration and firmness. His manner was profound and his voice oily andsoothing.

  "May it please your Honor--my young friend frankly pleads guilty." Hepaused as though the majesty of the law could ask no more. "He isa young man of naturally high and somewhat--naturally, too, nodoubt--bibulous spirits. Homoepathically--if inversely--the result waslogical. In the untrammelled life of the liberty-breathing mountains,where the stern spirit of law and order, of which your Honor is theaugust symbol, does not prevail as it does here--thanks to your Honor'swise and just dispensations--the lad has, I may say, naturally acquireda certain recklessness of mood--indulgence which, however easilycondoned there, must here be sternly rebuked. At the same time, he knewnot the conditions here, he became exhilarated without malice, prepenseyor even, I may say, consciousness. He would not have done as he has,if he had known what he knows now, and, knowing, he will not repeat theoffence. I need say no more. I plead simply that your Honor will temperthe justice that is only yours with the mercy that is yours--only."

  His Honor was visibly affected and to cover it--his methods beinginformal--he said with sharp irrelevancy:

  "Who bailed this young feller out last night?" The sergeant spoke:

  "Why, Mr. Marston thar"--with outstretched finger toward the youngengineer. The Blight's black eyes leaped with exultant appreciation andthe engineer turned crimson. His Honor rolled his quid around in hismouth once, and peered over his glasses:

  "I fine this young feller two dollars and costs." The young fellow hadturned slowly in his chair and his blue eyes blazed at the engineer withunappeasable hatred. I doubt if he had heard his Honor's voice.

  "I want ye to know that I'm obleeged to ye an' I ain't a-goin' to fergitit; but if I'd a known hit was you I'd a stayed in jail an' seen you inhell afore I'd a been bounden to ye."

  "Ten dollars fer contempt of couht." The boy was hot now.

  "Oh, fine and be--" The Hon. Samuel Budd had him by the shoulder, theboy swallowed his voice and his starting tears of rage, and after awhisper to his Honor, the Hon. Samuel led him out. Outside, the engineerlaughed to the Blight:

  "Pretty peppery, isn't he?" but the Blight said nothing, and later wesaw the youth on a gray horse crossing the bridge and conducted by theHon. Samuel Budd, who stopped and waved him toward the mountains. Theboy went on and across the plateau, the gray Gap swallowed him. Thatnight, at the post-office, the Hon. Sam plucked me aside by the sleeve.

  "I know Marston is agin me in this race--but I'll do him a good turnjust the same. You tell him to watch out for that young fellow. He's allright when he's sober, but when he's drunk--well, over in Kentucky, theycall him the Wild Dog."

  Several days later we started out through that same Gap. The glumstableman looked at the Blight's girths three times, and with my owneyes starting and my heart in my mouth, I saw her pass behind hersixteen-hand-high mule and give him a friendly tap on the rump as shewent by. The beast gave an appreciative flop of one ear and thatwas all. Had I done that, any further benefit to me or mine would beincorporated in the terms of an insurance policy. So, stating this, Ibelieve I state the limit and can now go on to say at last that it wasbecause she seemed to be loved by man and brute alike that a big man ofher own town, whose body, big as it was, was yet too small for his heartand from whose brain things went off at queer angles, always christenedher perversely as--"The Blight."