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HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY Boston and New York IN THE CLOUDS BY CHARLES EGBERT CRADDOCK AUTHOR OF "in the TENNESSEE MOUNTAINS," " DOWN THE RAVINB," " THE PROPHET OF THE GREAT SMOKY MOUNTAINS," ETC 1^^^ i ^^=^^^^^^m 1 1 m ^^ii^K 'II ^flWrr^itJ^ffg 1 BOSTON AND NEW YORK HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY (iCbe lRitEr?5itie pre?? Camtdtse Copyright, 1886, By MARY N. MURFREB. All rights reserved. IN THE CLOUDS. I. In the semblance of the cumulus-cloud from which it takes its name, charged ^\'ith the portent of the storm, the massive peak of Thunderhead towers preeminent among the summits of the Great Smoky Mountains, unique, impressive, most subtly significant. "What strange attraction of the earth laid hold on this vagrant cloud-form ? What unexplained permanence of destiny solidified it and fixed it forever in the founda- tions of the rancje ? Kindred thunderheads of the air lift above the hori- zon, lure, loiter, lean on its shoulder with similitudes and contrasts. Then with all the buoyant liberties of cloudage they rise, — rise ! Alas I the earth clasps its knees ; the mountains twine their arms about it ; hoarded ores of specious values •weigh it down. It cannot soar I Only the cumbrous image of an ethereal thing ! Only the ineffective wish vainly fashioned like the winged aspiration ! It may have said naught of this to Ben Doaks, but it exerted strenuous fascinations on the sense alert to them. Always he turned his eyes toward Thunderhead, as he came and went amongr his cattle on the neisfhborinor heights of Piomingo Bald, a few miles distant to the northeast. Often he left the herder's cabin in the woods below, and sat for hours on a rock on the summit, smok- ing his pipe and idly watching the varying aspects of the great peak. Sometimes it was purple against the azure heavens ; or gray and sharp of outline on faint green 393778 2 £N THE CLOUDS. spaces oi the sky; or misiy, immaterial, beset with clouds, as if the clans had gathered to claim the change- ling. " 'Pears-like ter me ez I could n't herd cattle along of a mo' low-sperited, say-nuthin' critter 'n ye be, Ben," his partner remarked one day, sauntering up the slope and joining him on the summit. " Ye jes' set up hyar on the bald an' gape at Thunderhead like ez ef ye war bereft. Now, down in the cove ye always air toler'ble good com- pany, — nimble-tongued ez ennybody." He thrust his cob-pipe into his mouth and pulled away silently at it, gazing at the smoke as it curled up with delicate sinuosity and transparently blue. Ben Doaks did not reply at once. There was no need of haste on Piomingo Bald. " Waal, I dunno but it air a sorter lonesome place, an* a-body don't feel much like talkin' no-ways," he drawled at last. " But ye '11 git used ter it, Mink," he added, in leisurely encouragement. " Ye '11 git used ter it, arter a while." Mink looked down disconsolately at the vast array of mountains below him on every side. The nearest were all tinged with a dusky purple, except for the occasional bare, garnet-colored stretches of the " fire-scalds," relics of the desolation when the woods were burned ; the va- rying tints were sublimated to blue in the distance ; then through every charmed gradation of ethereal azure the ranges faded into the invisible spaces that we wot not of. There was something strangely overwhelming in the stupendous expanse of the landscape. It abashed the widest liberties of fancy. Somehow it disconcerted all past experience, all previous prejudice, all credence in other conditions of life. The fact was visibly pre- sented to the eye that the world is made of moun- tains. That finite quality of the mind, aptly expressing itself in mensuration, might find a certain relief in taking note of the curious " bald " itself, — seeming some three or four hundred bare acres on the summit. Wild grass grows IN THE CLOUDS. 5 upon its gradual slope ; clumps of huckleberry bushes appear here and there ; occasional ledges of rock crop out. A hardy flower will turn a smiling face responsive to the measured patronage of the chilly sunshine in this rare air. The solemnity of the silence is broken only by the occasional tinkling of cow-bells from the herds of cattle among the woods lower down on the mountain side. " I never kin git used ter it," said Mink, desperately. " I never kin git used ter hevin' sech dumbness about me, an' seein' the time go so slow. 'Pears ter me some fower or five hunderd year sence we eat brekfus', — an' I ain't hongry, nuther." He was a tall, singularly lithe man of twenty-four or five, clad in a suit of brown jeans. He wore his coat closely buttoned over his blue-checked cotton shirt, for the August days are chilly on Piomingo Bald. His broad-brimmed white wool hat was thrust back on his head, showing his tousled auburn hair that hung down upon his collar, curling like a cavalier's. He had a keen> clear profile, a quickly glancing, dark eye, and his com- plexion was tanned to a rich tint that comported well with the out-door suggestions of his powder-horn and belt and shot-pouch, which he wore, although his rifle was at the cabin. He maintained the stolid gravity char- acteristic of the mountaineer, but there was a covert alertness about him, a certain sharpness of attention al- most inimical, and slow and dawdling as he was he gave the impression of being endowed with many an agile unclassified mental faculty. His eyes followed the flight of a bird soaring in great circles high above the " bald," sometimes balanced mo- tionless in mid-air, — a pose of ineffable strength and buoyancy, — then majestically circling as before. " That thar buzzard 'pears ter be a-loungin' around in the sky, a-waitin' fur we-uns ter die," he said, lugubri- ously. Doaks broke with an effort from his reverie, and turned his languid gaze on the malcontent herder. '' In the name o' heaven. Mink Lorey," he said sol- emnly, "• what is it ye do like ter do ? " 4 IN THE CLOUDS. Despite the spark of irritation in his eye, he seemed colorless, especially as contrasted with his comrade. He had a shock of fair hair and a light brown beard ; the complexion which is the complement of this type had freckled in its exposure to the sun instead of tanning, and added its original pallor to the negative effect. He had good features, but insignificant in their lack of any marked peculiarity except for the honest, candid look in the serious gray eye. He too wore a broad white wool hat and a suit of brown jeans. Mink gazed at his companion with an expression of brightening interest. He found himself and his own id- iosyncrasies, even when berated, more agreeable to con- template than the mountains. He did not reply, perhaps appreciating that no answer was expected. *' Ye don't like ter herd up hyar, an' the Lord knows I ain't keerin' ter hev ye. Ye hev gin me ez much trouble ez all the cattle an' thar owners besides. When ye wanted ter kem so bad, an' sorter go partners with me, I 'lowed ye 'd be lively, an' a toler'ble good critter ter hev along. An' ye hev been ez lonesome an' ez on- considerate an' ez ill-convenient ez a weanin' baby," he declared, rising to hyberbole. " What do ye like ter do?" Once more Mink refrained from reply. He looked absently at an isolated drift of mist, gigantic of outline, reaching from the zenith to the depths of Piomingo Cove, and slowly passing down the valley between the Great Smoky and the sunflooded Chilhowee Mountain, obscur- ing for the moment the red clay banks of the Scolacutta River, whose current seemed a mere silver thread twin- ing in and out of the landscape. " Look a-hyar at the way ye go on," said Doaks, warm- ing to the subject, for there are few exercises so enter- taining as to preach with no sense of participation in sin. " Ye went ter work at that thar silver mine in North Car 'liny, an' thar ye stayed sorter stiddy an' peaceful till ye seen yer chance. An' Pete Rood, he kem an' stayed too, an' he war sorter skeered o' the ways, — not IN THE CLOUDS. 5 bein' used ter minin'. An' then yer minkish tricks be- gan. Fust, when that thar feller war let down inter the shaft an' ye hed a-holt o' the windlass, ye drapped a few clods o' clay in on him, an' then a Jeetle ^avel, an' then mo' clay. Then he bellered that the shaft war ca\dn' in on him, an' plead an' prayed with ye ter mnd him up quick. An' ye would n't pull. An' when the t'other fellers run thar an' drawed that man out he war weak enough ter drap." " I 'member ! " cried Mink, with a burst of unregener- ate laughter. " He said, ' Lemme git out'n this spindlin' heU o' a well ! ' " He sprang up, grotesquely imitating the gesture of ex- haustion with which the man had stepped out of the bucket to firm ground. "Waal, it mought hev turned out a heap wus," said Doaks, " 'kase they 'lowed down yander 'bout Big Injun Mounting, whar Rood hails from, ez he hev got some sort'n heart-disease. An' a suddint skeer mought hev killed him." " Shucks ! " said Mink, incredulously. He looked dis- concerted, however, and then sat down on the rock as before. Ben Doaks went on : — " An' that war n't enough fur ye. "When they hed Rood thar a-pumpin' out water, all by himself all night, nuthin' would do ye but ye must hide up thar in the Lost-Time mine in the dark o' the midnight an' the rain, an' explode a lot o' gunpowder, an' kem a-bustin' out at him from the mouth o' the tunnel, wropped in a sheet an' howlin' like a catamount. He run mighty nigh a mile." " Waal," said Mink, in sturdy argument, " I ain't 'sponsible 'kase Peter Rood air toler'ble easy skeered." ••' They never hired ye ter work thar no mo', bein' ez that war 'bout all the use ye put yerse'f ter in the silver mine in North Car'Hny." Despite the reproof, Doaks was looking kindly at him, for the wayward Mink had evidently endeared himself in some sort to the elder herder, who was weakly con- scious of not regarding his enormities with the aversion they merited. 6 IN THE CLOUDS. The young man's countenance fell. His mischief dif- fered from that of his namesake in all the sequelae of an accusing conscience. But stay ! "What do we know of the mink's midday meditations, his sober, ex post facto regrets ? " An' what do ye do then, — 'kase they turned ye off ? Ye go thar of a night, when nobody 's at the windlass, an' ye busts it down an' flings the bucket an' rope an' all down the shaft." Mink was embarrassed. " How d' ye know ? " he re- torted, with acrid futility. " How d' ye know 't war mer V" " 'Kase it air fairly kin ter yer actions, — know it by the family favor," said Doaks. "Ax ennybody enny- whar round the Big Smoky who did sech an' sech, an' they 'd all say. Mink. Ye know the word they hev gin ye, ' Mink by name an' Mink by natur.' " Lorey made no further feint of denial. He seemed a trifle out of countenance. He glanced over his shoulder at the rugged horizontal summit line of Chilhowee, ris- ing high above the intervenient mountains, and sharply imposed upon the mosaic of delicate tints known as the valley of East Tennessee, which stretches so far that, de- spite its sharp inequalities, it seems to have the level mo- notony of the sea till Walden's Ridge, the great outpost of the Cumberland Mountains, meets the concave sky. Then, as his wandering attention returned to those sterner heights close at hand, their inexpressible grav- ity, their significant solemnity, which he could not ap- prehend, which baffled every instinct of his limited na- ture, smote upon him. He broke out irritably : — " What do ye jes' set thar a-jowin' at me fur, Ben, like a long-tongued woman, 'bout what I done an' what I hain't done, in this hyar lonesome place whar I hev been tolled ter by you-uns ? I never begged ter be 'lowed ter herd along of ye, nohow. When I kem an' axed ye 'bout'n it, ye 'lowed ye 'd be powerful glad. An' ye said ez so many o' the farmers in the flat woods hed promised IN THE CLOUDS. 7 ter bunch thar cattle an' send 'em up ter ye fur the sum- mer season, that ye war pkimb skeered 'bout thar bein' too many fur one man ter keer fur, an' ye did n't see how ye 'd git along 'thout a partner. An' ye 'lowed ye 'd already rented Piomingo Bald right reasonable, an' the owners o' the cattle would pay from seventy-five cents to a dollar a head ; an' ye 'd gin me a sheer ef I 'd kem along an' holp ye, — an' all sech ez that. An' I kem up in the spring, an' I hev been on this hyar durned pinna- cle o' perdition ever sence. It 'minds me all the time o' that thar high mounting in the Bible whar the Tempter showed off all the kingdoms o' the yearth. What ails ye ter git arter me ? I hain't tried no minkish tricks on you-ans." "Ye hev, Mink. Yes, "ye hev." Mink looked bewildered for a moment. Then a shade of consciousness settled on his face. He lifted one foot over his knee, and affected to examine the sole of his boot. The light zephjT was tossing his long, tangled locks, the sun shone through their filaments. No vanity was expressed in wearing them thus, — only some vague preference, some prosaic prejudice against shears. Their fineness and lustre did nothing to commend them, and they had been contemptuously called a " sandy bresh- heap." His bright eyes had a fringe of the same unique tint that softened their expression. He dropped his boot presently, and fixed his gaze upon a flitting yellow but- terfly, lured by some unexplained fascination of fragrance to these skyey heights. " Ye can't make out ez I stand in yer way, enny," he said at last, enigmatically. Doaks's face flushed suddenly. " Naw, I ain't claimin' ez I hev enny chance. Ef I hed, an' ye ivar in my way," he continued, abruptly, with a sudden flare of spirit, " I 'd choke the life out'n ye, an' fling yer wu'thless carcass ter the wolves. I 'd crush yer skull with the heel o' my boot ! " He stood up for a moment ; then turned suddenly, and sat down again. Mink looked at him curiously, with narrowing hds. 8 IN THE CLOUDS. Doaks's hands were trembling. His eyes were alert, alight. The blood was pulsing fast through his veins. So revivified was he by the bare contemplation of the contingency that he seemed hardly recognizable as the honest, patient, taciturn comrade of Piomingo Bald. " Waal," Mink said presently, " that war one reason I wanted ter herd along o' you-uns this year. I 'lowed 1 'd make right smart money through the summer season, an' then me an' Lethe would git married nex' fall, mebbe. My folks air so pore an' shiftless, — an' I 'd ez lief live along of a catamount ez Lethe's step-mother, — an' so I 'lowed we 'd try ter git a leetle ahead an' set up for ourselves." Doaks trembled with half-repressed excitement. "Ye tole me ez ye an' she hed quar'led," he said. " Ye never dreampt o' sech a thing ez savin' fur a house an' sech till this minit. Ye ain't been ter see her sence ye hev been on the Big Smoky till ye fund out ez I went down thar wunst in a while, an' the old folks favored me. ** Waal," retorted Mink, hardily, "I know she 'd make it up with me enny minit I axed her." Doaks said nothing for a time. Then suddenly, " Waal, then, ef ye air layin' off ter marry Lethe Sayles, why n't ye quit hangin' round Elviry Crosby, an' terri- fyin' Peter Rood out 'n his boots ? They 'd hev been married afore now, ef ye hed lef 'em be." " Why n't she quit hangin' round me, ye 'd better say! " exclaimed Mink, with the flattered laugh of the lady-killer. " Laws-a-massy, I don't want ter interfere with nobody. Let the gals go 'long an ' marry who they please, — an' leave me alone ! '* His manner implied, if they can ! And he laughed once more. Doaks glanced at him impatiently, and then turned his eyes away upon the landscape. Fascinations invisi- ble to the casual gaze revealed themselves to him day by day. He had made discoveries. In some seeming in- definiteness of the horizon he had found the added IN THE CLOUDS. 9 beauty of distant heights, as if, while he looked, the softened outline of blue peaks, given to the sight of no other creature, were sketched into the picture. Once a sudden elusive silver glinting, imperceptible to eyes less trained to the minutiae of these long distances, told him the secret source of some stream, unexplored to its head-waters in a dark and bosky ravine. Sometimes he distinguished a stump which he had never seen before in a collection of dead trees, girdled long ago, and stand- ing among the corn upon so high and steep a slope that the slant justified the descriptive gibe of the region, " fields hung up to dry." The sky too was his familiar ; he noted the vague, silent shapes of the mist that came and went their unimagined ways. He watched the Olympian games of the clouds and the wind. He marked the lithe lengths of a meteor glance across the August heavens, like the elastic springing of a shining sword from its sheath. The moon looked to meet him, waiting at his tryst on the bald. He had become peculiarly sensitive to the electric con- ditions of the atmosphere, and was forewarned of the terrible storms that are wont to break on the crest of the great mountain. Often Mink appealed to him as he did now, imputing a certain responsibility. " Enny thunder in that thar cloud ? " he demanded, with the surly distrust which accompanies the query, " Does your dog bite ? " " Naw ; no thunder, nor rain nuther." " I 'm powerful glad ter hear it, 'kase I don't 'sociate with this hyar bald when thar 's enny lightning around." He had heard the many legends of "lightning balls " that are represented as ploughing the ground on Piomin- go, and he spoke his fears with the frankness of one pos- sessed of unimpeachable courage. " That 's what makes me c^espise this hyar spot," he said, irritably. ** Things 'pear so cur'ous. I feel like I hev accidentally stepped off 'n the face o ' the yearth. An ' I hev ter go mighty nigh spang down ter the foot o' the mounting 'fore I feel Hke folks agin." 10 IN THE CLOUDS. He glanced downward toward the nearest trees that asserted the right of growth about this strange and bar- ren place. " Ye can't git used ter nothin', nuther. Them cur'ous leetle woods air enough ter make a man 'low he hev got the jim-jams ez a constancy. I dunno ivhat '5 in 'em ! My flesh creeps whenever I go through 'em. I always feel like ef I look right quick I '11 see suthin' awful, — witches, or harnts, or — I dunno ! " He looked down at them again, quickly ; but he was sure not quickly enough. And the woods were of a strange aspect, chiefly of oaks with gnarled limbs, full-leaved, bulky of bole, but all uni- formly stunted, not one reaching a height greater than fifteen feet. This characteristic gave a weird, unnatural effect to the long avenues beneath their low-spreading boughs. The dwarfed forest encircled Piomingo Bald, and stretched along the summit of the range, unbroken save where other domes — Silar's Bald, Gregory's Bald, and Parsons' Bald — rose bare and gaunt against the sky. " Ez ter witches an' harnts an' them, I ain't never seen none hyar on Piomingo Bald," said Doaks. " It ain't never hed the name o' sech, like Thunderhead." Mink placed his elbows on his knees, and held his chin in his hand. His roving dark eyes were meditative now ; some spell of imagination lay bright in their depths. " Hev he been viewed lately ? " he asked. " Who ? " demanded Doaks, rousing himself. " That thar Herder on Thunderhead," said Mink, lowering his voice. The fibrous mist, hovering about the summit of Thunderhead and stretching its long lines almost over to Piomingo Bald, might in some mysterious telegraphy of the air transmit the matter. *' Not ez I knows on," said Doaks. " He ain't been viewed lately. But Joe Boyd, he 's a-herdin' over thar now : I kem acrost him one day las' week, an' he 'lowed ez his cattle hed been actin' powerful strange. I 'lowed the cattle mus' hev viewed the harnt, an' mebbe he war tryin' ter 'tice 'em off." IX THE CLOUDS. H '• Ef ye '11 b'lieve me," said Mink ruminatively, after a pause, " I never beam none o' them boys tell a word about that thar harnt of a herder on Thunderhead." '' Them t'other herders on Thunderhead don't hanker ter talk 'bout him, noways." said Doaks. " It 's power- ful hard ter git a word outn 'em 'bout it ; they 're mighty apt ter laff, an' 'low it mus' be somebody ridin' roun' from 'cross the line. But it '11 make enny of 'em bleach ef ye ax 'em suddint ef all o' Joshua Nixon's bones war buried tergether." The mists had spanned the abyss of the valley in a sheer, gossamer-like network, holding the sunbeams in a glittering entanglement. They elusively caressed the mountain summit, and hung about the two lounging fig- ures of the herders. — a sort of ethereal eavesdropping of uncomfortable suggestions, — and slipped into the dwarfed woods, where they lurked spectrally. " Waal, ef ye ax 'em ef Joshua Nixon's bones war all buried tergether they 'U bleach," Doaks repeated. ^ '' See that thar sort'n gap yander ? " he continued, pointing at a notch on the slope of Thunderhead. " They fund his bones thar under a tree streck by lightning. They 'lowed that war the way he died. But the wolves an' the buzzards bed n't lef ' enough ter make sure. They bed scattered his bones all up an' down the slope. He bed herded over thar a good many year, an' some o' the t'other boys keered fur the cattle till the owners kem in the faU." He recounted slowly. Time was no object on Pio- mingo Bald. " Waal, nobody beam nuthin' mo' 'bout'n it fur a few years, till one day when I war herdin' thar the cattle war all fund, runned mighty nigh ter death, an' a-bellerin' an' a-cavortin' ez ef they war 'witched. An' one o' the herders, Ike Stern, kem' in thar ter the cabin an' 'lowed he bed seen a lot o' strange cattle 'mongst our'n, an' a herder ridin' 'mongst 'em. 'T war misty, bein' a rainy spell, an' he lost the herder in the fog. Waal, we jes' 'lowed 't war somebody from Picmingo Bald huntin' fur 12 IN THE CLOUDS. strays, or somebody from 'cross the line. So we jes' went on fryin' the meat, an' bakin' the hoe-cake, an' settin' roun' the fire ; but this hyar man kept on com- plainin' he could n't holp seein' that thar herder. An' wunst in a while he 'd hold his hand afore his eyes. An' one o' the old herders, — Rob Carrick 't war, — he jes' axed him what that herder looked like. An' Ike jes' sot out ter tell. An' the coffee war a-bilin', an' the meat Hrsizzlin', an' Carrick war a-squattin' afore the fire a-list- enin' an' a-turnin' the meat, till all of a suddint he lept up an' drapped his knife, yellin', ' My God ! ye lyin' buzzard, don't ye set thar a-tellin' me ez Josh Nixon hev kem all the way from hell ter herd on Thunderhead ! Don't ye do it ! Don't ye do it ! ' An' Ike Stern, — he looked like he seen Death that minit ; his eyes war like coals o' fire, an' he trembled all over, — he jes' said, ' I see I hev been visited by the devil, fur I hev been gin ter view a dead man, apin' the motions o' life.' " Doaks pulled at his pipe for a few moments, his eyes still absently fitted on the purple peak shimmering in the gauzy white mists and the yellow sunshine. " I never shell furgit that night. Thar war three men thar ; one hed herded along o' Josh on Thunder- head, but Ike Stern had never seen him in life, an' me not at all. Waal, sir ! the rain kem down on the roof, an' the wind war like the tromplin' o' a million o' herds o' wild cattle. We 'lowed we hed never hearn sech a plungin' o' the yellemints. The night war ez dark ez a wolf's mouth, 'cept when it lightened, an' then we could see we war wropped in the clouds. An' through all them crackin' peals them men talked 'bout that thar harnt o' a Herder on Thunderhead. Waal, nex' mornin' Stern jes' gin up his job, an' went down the mounting ter Piomingo Cove. An' he stayed thar, too. They 'lowed he done no work fur a year an' a day. His time war withered an' his mind seemed darkened." "He 'pears ter hev toler'ble good sense now," said Mink, striving against credulity. " Yes, he hev spryed up powerful." IX TEE CLOUDS. 13 " Waal," said Mink, constrained by the fascination of the suj^ernatural, '• I hev hearn ez Carrick seen the Herder, too." " He did," replied Doaks. " Arter a while — a week, mebbe — Rob kem up ter me an' axed, ' Whar 's them cattle a-bellerin'? ' I listened, but I never hearn nuthin'. TVe hed missed some steers arter Ike hed seen the Herder, an' Rob war sorter 'feard they'd run down inter the cove. He jumped on a half-bruk clay-bank colt an' rid off, thinkin' the bellerin' mought be them. Waal, time passed. I hed nuthin' in particlar ter do : cattle war salted the day before. Time passed. I jes' sot thar. I 'lowed I 'd wait till Rob kem back, then I 'd go a-huntin'. Time passed. I 'lowed I 'd furgit how ter talk ef I war n't herdin' along o' sech a sociable crit- ter ez Rob, an' I wondered ef I war by myself up on Thunderhead ef I 'd hev ter talk ter myse'f a little. An' ez I sot thar in the fog — 't war September then, an' we war clouded ez a constancy — I said, jes' like a fool, out loud, suddint, ' Howdy.'sir ! ' Waal, I never did know what I seen ez I looked up ; mought hev been the mist, mought hev been the devil. I 'lowed I seen a man on a horse gallopin' off in the fog. Then I hearn a power o' jouncin' hoofs, an' hyar kem Rob's colt a- rearin' an' a-pawin', skeered ter death mighty nigh, with all the hide scraped off n his knees, an' his shins barked bad. I seen he hed hed a fall ; so I jumped up an' run down a leetle piece along the trail, an' thar war Rob lyin' on the groun', flunged over the colt's head ez neat an' nip ! I run up ter him. I 'lowed he war hurt. He never answered a word I axed him. His eyes war stretched open bigger 'n enny eye I ever seen, an' he said, ' Ye hev viewed him too, Ben, I know it, fur ye 've got the '' harnt bleach." I know the reason now,' says Rob, ' ez he herds on Thunderhead, — 'kase his bones war n't all buried tergether, though we sarched nigh an' we sarched fur.' " '' Did the Herder tell him that? " asked Mink, with a sudden accession of credulity. 14 IN THE CLOUDS. " Naw, ye durned fool ! " exclaimed Doaks, scandal- ized at the idea of tliis breach of spectral etiquette. " The Herder jes' passed him like the wiud, an' the colt jes' reared and flung Rob over his head." "Waal," said Mink sturdily, "I b'lieve 't war nuthin' but somebody from the Car'liny side, ridin' roun' an' tollin' off cattle." "Mebbe," said Doaks, non-committally. "Ye can't prove nuthin' by me. All I know is, Carrick seen his face, an' he jes' fell in a sorter stupor for a year an' a day. I hev hearn o' sech sperits ez can't kill ye, but jes' wither yer time, an' mebbe this hyar Herder on Thunderhead be one o' them." Neither spoke for some moments. Both sat gazing fixedly at the massive mountain in the likeness of a cloud lowering aggressively over the mean altitudes of the range. What wrath of elements did it hold en- chained ? What bolts of heaven unhurled ? What strange phenomena of being might lurk in those mystic vapors metamorphosed into the solidities of earth — this apostate cloud that asserted itself a mountain ? The sky was clear about it now ; the mists had all drifted over to Piomingo Bald, veiling the dwarfed forests. Suddenly there was a vague shiver among them. Into the silence was projected the report of a rifle. The two men sprang to their feet, and looked at each other. " Somebody a-huntin', I reckon," said IVIink. He was beginning to laugh, a little shamefacedly. " Listen ! " said Doaks. " What 's that ? " The cattle were bellowing with affright in the stunted woods. The earth shook under their hoofs. A young bull came plunging out of the mists. He paused as he reached the bare slope, lifted his head, and looked back over his shoulder with great dilated eyes. " What ails the cattle ? " exclaimed Doaks, running down the slope. Mink hesitated for a moment, then fol- lowed. The boles of the dwarfed trees stood shadowy here and there, growing still more indistinct further, and fad- IN THE CLOUDS. 15 ing into the white opaque blankness of the vapor. So low were their summits that one could see the topmost boughs, despite the encompassing mist. All the cattle were in the wildest excitement, snorting and bellowing, and, with lowered horns, and tails in the air, they were making at full speed for the upper regions of the bald. Each, bursting out of the densities of the fog, separated from the others, seemed to give some in* dividual expression of bovine rage. There might be heard, but not seen, an infuriated animal hard by, tear- ing up the ground. " Waal, I never 'sperienced the like in my life ofE 'n Thunderhead ! " exclaimed Doaks. ISIink said nothing ; he sprang aside to avoid the head- long rush of a brute that shot out of the mist and into it again with the swift unreality of an apparition. Then he spoke suddenly. " Ye never said he rid with a rifle.': " Who ? " asked Doaks, bewildered. He was in ad- vance. He looked back over his shoulder. "Who?" he repeated. *' That thar Herder from Thunderhead," said Mink. " Ye dough-faced idjit, — what d' ye mean ? " Mink pointed silently. A few yards distant there was a rude barricade of felled trees, laid together after the zigzag manner of a rail fence. It was intended to prevent the cattle from running down a precipitous ravine which it overlooked. Close to it in the mist a cow was lying. There was no mistaking the attitude. The animal was dead. A care- fully aimed rifle-ball had penetrated the eye, and buried itself in the brain. n. There was blood upon the ground. An awkward ai> tempt had been made to cut the brute's throat, and, this failing, the rifle had been called into use. Doaks walked up to the animal, and turned her head to look for the brass tag about her horns which would bear her owner's mark. She wore no tag, and her hide had never known the branding-iron. His eye fell on a peculiar perfora- tion in her ear. " Mink," he exclaimed, with a note of anguish, " this hyar critter 's my cow / " Mink came up, his countenance adjusted to sympathy. He had little of the instinct of acquisition. He was al- most incapable of any sentiment of that marvelous range of emotions which vibrate with such fineness of suscepti- bility to the alternations of gain and loss. He looked like an intelligent animal as he helped make sure of the herder's mark. " Ye hed sech a few head o' stock o' yer own, enny- ways," he observed, with a dolorous lack of tact. " Oh, Lord A'mighty, none sca'cely," exclaimed Doaks, feeling very poor. " I dunno how in this worl' this hyar cow happened ter be singled out." "Mebbe he hed a gredge agin ye, too, 'bout them bones, bein' ez ye herded on Thunderhead -w^unst," sug- gested Mink. "What bones?" demanded Doaks, amazed. " Why, his'n," said Mink, in a lowered voice. " In the name o' reason, Mink, what air ye a-drivin' at?" cried Doaks, flustered and aghast. "Why, the Herder, o' course. Him ez skeered the cattle on Thunderhead. I 'lowed mebbe he hed a gr«dge agin you-uns, too." ly TEE CLOUDS. 17 " How 'd he kem over hyar? " demanded Doaks, with scorn, as if the harnt of a Herder were limited to the locality of Thunderhead. " It 's a deal mo' likely ter be some livin' man ez hev got a gredge agin ye fur yer minkish ways, an' seein' the critter hed no tag on, an' war n"t branded nuther, killed her fur ye." Mink drew a long breath, "Waal, I hope so, the Lord knows. I 'd settle him." An essentially mundane courage was his, but a sturdy endowment as far as it went. His imagination was of the pursuant order ; it struck out no new trail, but, given a lead, it could follow with many an active expression of power. He accepted at once this suggestion, with a confidence as complete as if he had never credited the grudge of a ghostly herder. '• An' I '11 be bound I kin tell ye jes' who 't war," he said, stoutly, producing a corollary to the proposition he had adopted as his own. " 'T war that thar pop-eyed fool Peter Rood. I reckon ye hev noticed, ef one o' them black-eyed, tliick-set, big-headed men git made game of 'bout ennything, he '11 pay ye back some mean way. Stiddier skeerin' me fur skeerin' him, he kems hyar an' shoots that cow." He thrust one hand in his leather belt, and turned his bold bright glance on his partner. As he stood at his full height, vigorous, erect, a touch of freakishness in his eyes, decision expressed in his clear-cut features, a certain activity suggested even in his motionless pose, it might have seemed that the revenge of shooting the cow was the more hopeful project. Doaks, a philosopher in some sort, and reflective, could discriminate as to motives. " Rood never done it fur that by itself. I don't b'lieve he would hev done it jes' fur that. But the way ez ye hev been performin' sence 'bout Elviry Crosby air powerful aggervatin'. I hearn tell ez she hev turned Rood off. an' won't speak ter him, though the weddin' day hed been set I 1 reckon he felt like payin' ye back ennyhow it kem handy." 18 IN THE CLOUDS. Doaks (Irow a plutc *^f tobacco from liis ])ockot, wrenched oil* a iraginent with liis strong teeth, antl, talkiny mouglit hold me 'sponsible. I dunno whether tiiey couhl or no. I 'low lie war 'quainted with this cow, an' knovved her tor bo yourn, an' never drempt ez ye lied swo})j)ed her off ter mo. I wisht ter (JJawd the critter knew ye lied no cattle on tlio mounting, an' ain't 'sponsible ter the owners, ez ye never traded with them, but arter my con- tract war made ye jes' went shares wilh mo." He seated himself on the rude fence in an awkward attitude, his long legs danghng, and drew out a red cot- ton handkerchief with which he rubbed his corrugated brow as vigorously as if he could thus smooth out tlie pucker in his brain. '' Waal, waal ! this mortal life ! " ho exclaimed, pres- ently. " Satan won't leave ye in j)eace. Ye may go an' set yerse'f nj) on the bald of a mounting, herdin' 'mongst the dumb ones, an' the worl' an' the things o' this life will kem a-croj)in' u]) on ye with a rifle, an' ye be 'bleeged ter turn 'roun' an' cornsider how ye kin keep what ye liev got an' how ye kin git mo'. I nseter 'low ef I war a per^ fessin' member, f/iis worl' would n't stick so in my craw; so I tuk cornsider' hie ])ains ter git religion, an' mighty nigh wore out the mourners' bench settin' on it so con- stant, till I war actially feared the Ijord would bo i)er- voked ter see me i!i the front row o' them convicted o' sin at ecery revival, and visit wrath on me. An' I lu^ver got religion at last ; thongh I feel nigher ter it on l*iomingo Bald than ennywhar else, till Uood, or somebody, starts up like they lied a contract with Satan to be-devil me." INlink listened with a sort of alVectionate ruefulness. Then he broke forth, sudtlenly, "• Mebbo I mought see Kood ef I war ter go down ter Piomingo Cove, whar the boys be goin' ter shoot fur beef this evenin'. An' 1 kin IN THE CLOUDS. ^^ let him know I don't own no cattlo up hyar, an' liain't got no trade with the owners, an' ain't 'sponsible ter no- hody." • Ti 1 ♦ There was a sudden expression of alarm m Doaks s face. "Don't ye let Rood know we suspieioned him, 'kase he mought hev hed nuthin' ter do with it." ^ _ ^ " Naw," said Mink, with a iliploniatie nod, " I '11 jes tell that whilst I 'm a-spreadin' the tale 'bout the cow." There was a short silence. Doaks still sat, with a ponderinfT asj)ect, on the fence. " Rood mought take his gredge out on you-uns some other way, Mink," he suggested i)resently. He felt bound in conscience to present the contingency. " I 'm ekal ter him," said Mink hardily. In fact, Mink bore the most lightsome spirit down the mountain, scarcely to be expected in a man who goes to invite a more personal direction of the machinations ot a feud. He would have dared far more to secure a respite from the loneliness of Piomingo Bald, to say nothing of the opportunity of mingling in the festivity of shooting for beef. He had not even a (pialm of regret for tlie solitary herder whom he left standing at the fence, gaz- m