Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: June 3, 2025
"That is no reason why we should not try to get him to come," said Peter. "You are right, boy," cried Hixon, "but if any one goes, I'll go." Hixon was just getting on the mast, when he exclaimed that the skipper and mate were coming along it. At that moment the end of the mast began to rise. Hixon threw himself off it. "Stand clear of the rigging," cried several voices.
Peter offered to stay by the captain if the three other men would go in search of them, and ascertain whether any water was to be found. "If we are to live we must do so," said Hixon; "come along, mates; I know Peter will look after the captain," and they set off. After Peter had moistened the captain's lips, and made his bed as comfortable as he could, he said, "Shall I read to you, sir?"
"I can't read, so there's little chance of that," said Hixon. "But will you let me read them to you?" asked Peter. "I shall be very glad to do that." "What! when I have told you that I would heave the book overboard if I found you reading it?" said the old man. "That makes no difference," said Peter, "only just listen to one or two."
One day, the Hixon conclave met in the room over Hollman's Mammoth Department Store, and with much profanity read a communication from Frankfort, announcing the pardon of Samson South. In that episode, they foresaw the beginning of the end for their dynasty. The outside world was looking on, and their regime could not survive the spotlight of law -loving scrutiny.
"I'll go with you, Horton, and make a sketch or two," volunteered George Lescott, who just then arrived from town. "And, by the way, Samson, here's a letter that came for you just as I left the studio." The mountaineer took the envelope with a Hixon postmark, and for an instant gazed at it with a puzzled expression. It was addressed in a feminine hand, which he did not recognize.
His eyes fell upon the saddlebags on the floor of the Pullman, and he smiled satirically. He would like to step from the train at Hixon and walk brazenly through the town in those old clothes, challenging every hostile glance. If they shot him down on the streets, as they certainly would do, it would end his questioning and his anguish of dilemma.
A man supposedly close to the Hollmans, but in reality an informer for the Souths, had seen him led into the jail-yard by a posse of a half-dozen men, and had seen the iron-barred doors close on him. That was all, except that the Hollman forces were gathering in Hixon, and, if the Souths went there en masse, a pitched battle must be the inevitable result.
"This hyar Malviny Hixon ez lived down in Tanglefoot Cove then her an' Hil'ry war promised ter marry, but the revenuers captured him he war a-runnin' a still in Tanglefoot then an' they kep' him in jail somewhar in the North fur five year.
"I hope," came the instant reply, "it may be summed up by saying that I'm exactly the opposite of the man you've had described for you back there at Hixon." "I knew it," exclaimed the soldier, "I knew that I was being fed on lies! That's why I came. I wanted to get the straight of it, and I felt that the solution lay over here." They rode the rest of the way in deep conversation.
Sheriff Forbin died, leaving behind him an unexpired term of two years, and Samson was summoned hastily to Frankfort. He returned, bearing his commission as High Sheriff, though, when that news reached Hixon, there were few men who envied him his post, and none who cared to bet that he would live to take his oath of office. That August court day was a memorable one in Hixon.
Word Of The Day
Others Looking