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Updated: June 3, 2025
"Hold on where you are, Peter," said Hixon; "I will try if there's any way of getting on shore." "But you may be washed off," said Peter. "My life is worth little," said the old man, "I am not afraid to die now, and I may, if I succeed, help to save others." Fastening a rope round his waist which he secured to a ring-bolt in the deck, he struggled to the side of the ship nearest the shore.
"You see, youngster, if I am not as good as my word," growled Hixon. Peter prayed that the old seaman's hard heart might be softened, and that he might be prevented committing such a crime. "I don't think if you read the book you would wish to destroy it," said Peter. "It is full of such beautiful things, that you would like to read them over and over again if you were once to begin."
The officer had meant what he said. He marched his prisoner into Hixon at the center of a hollow square, with muskets at the ready. And yet, as the boy passed into the court-house yard, with a soldier rubbing elbows on each side, a cleanly aimed shot sounded from somewhere. The smokeless powder told no tale and with blue shirts and army hats circling him, Tamarack fell and died.
The men told Hixon that their ship was the Myrtle, bound out to New South Wales, and their captain's name was Barrow. It was nearly dark when Captain Barrow reached the hut, and was thankfully welcomed by poor Captain Hauslar. "I am afraid that for my sake you will expose your ship to risk," observed the latter during their conversation.
The captain sent a message by Hixon, but the men only laughed at him, and replied that a ship was sure soon to appear, and take them off, though they took no pains to make their situation known.
And so, lest one of Hollman's hired assassins should succeed in slipping across the ridge and waylaying him, Samson conducted him to the frontier of the ridge. On reaching Hixon, Callomb apologized to Judge Smithers for his recent outburst of temper. Now that he understood the hand that gentleman was playing, he wished to be strategic and in a position of seeming accord.
He would welcome that, but it would, after all, be shirking the issue. He must get out of Hixon and into his own country unrecognized. The lean boy of four years ago was the somewhat filled out man now. The one concession that he had made to Paris life was the wearing of a closely cropped mustache.
The captain and officers looked anxious. They had cause to be so, for suddenly the wind again rose, now blowing from one quarter, now from another, and all hands were kept on deck ready to brace round the yards as might be required. For several days no observation had been taken, and old Hixon told Peter that he feared the ship had been driven considerably out of her course.
Here, in Hixon, he was seeing things from only one angle. He meant to learn something more impartial. Besides being on duty as an officer of militia, Callomb was a Kentuckian, interested in the problems of his Commonwealth, and, when he went back, he knew that his cousin, who occupied the executive mansion at Frankfort, would be interested in his suggestions.
All journeys end, and as Samson passed through the tawdry cars of the local train near Hixon he saw several faces which he recognized, but they either eyed him in inexpressive silence, or gave him the greeting of the "furriner." Then the whistle shrieked for the trestle over the Middle Fork, and at only a short distance rose the cupola of the brick court-house and the scattered roofs of the town.
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