T. S. Stribling

“ The man who stalked me had the bristly face and chopped features of the rustic you saw on the Jacksburg platform. A certain stare in his eyes gave me a swift impression of a hunter about to shoot his quarry. I knew I must say something quickly to establish human relations with the fellow. I hurried the phrase.
“'I'm looking for Buck Killen!'
“'You met him,' said the pothunter in a strange tone.
“'I wanted to ask about the—the fishermen on the lake. Are they still worked up over Judge Pettigrew?'
“'They think they've been tricked by a gun-club man,' snarled the fellow in a hard voice. ”

“ Something in the unshaved yawning face silhouetted against the light made me remark that perhaps the Tennessee legislature had outlawed the theory of evolution because it was getting too personal.
I had meant for Glamouran to smile, but the special agent kept sober enough.
“I dare say he is as far from the Neanderthal as we are,” he observed. “Any civilization is a question of checks and balances—where the people place their energy. ”

“ When I had raked off the mud, I suddenly saw his mistake.
“'Killen,' I explained hurriedly, 'this brand of rubber heel is as common as buffalo nickels. Everybody wears them. For you to accuse me of murder because I happen to wear the same sort of heel as Judge Pettigrew's assailant—it's unreasonable! As I said, I am an insurance man. The judge's life means a fortune to my company. Besides, when this tragedy happened I had never seen Lida May.'
“This last sentence, I am sure, is what really saved my skin. ”

“ I never heard of any creditor shutting down on such a man, did you, Combs? They live from deficit to deficit by the grace of God and the charm of their personality.'
“'And conviviality,' added Combs.
“'Admitted,' agreed Peasley. 'In fact, I'll gamble Judge Pettigrew was drunk as a lord when he walked out of his house last Thursday night and answered the call of his murderers. Why, he knew, or he would have known, if he'd been himself, that every pothunter on the lake had it in for him. ”

“ We'd better have a hundred lawsuits than another murder.'
“Their genuine concern for my safety touched me. 'Gentlemen,' I said, 'it is one thing to be cautious in the ordinary run of things, but when a man's profession involves a certain danger, a fellow can't sit down and say: “I'll wait till things look safer.” It's not the game. You see, that's the point of my work. I am employed by the Mutual to do unsafe things.'
“Again the men tried to dissuade me, but since that was especially what I came to Jacksburg for—— Well, there I was!” ”

“ MY friend, to be drawn from such a moment by a man, another lover, who, you suspect in your heart, holds a deeper passion than your own, that's bitter.
“I had quite forgot the pothunter and now became aware of him only through Lida May stiffening in my arms. Then I became rigid myself, and could feel the fellow's eyes on my back. ”

“ The banker peered down the sun-dazzled road. 'Yonder is his house now,' he remarked, in the peculiar flatted tone men use when they come into the purlieus of tragedy.
“Peasley stopped his commentaries for the moment and sat squinting his eyes at the. old plantation manor. 'You know,' he said, reproducing the same hushed tone the banker had used, 'that house always reminded me of the old judge himself somehow; the sag to the roof, some of the windows gone, gate dragging the ground, not a drop of paint for forty years, nothing quite right. ”

“ Glamouran continued; “my work rather cures one of that emotional instability; though why human beings should really cease to be sentimental, and pride themselves upon a certain hardness of heart, I don't know. ”

“ I want to say that I have done nothing by Lida May which any honorable man may not do by any woman. As for foul play by Judge Pettigrew, you are simply insane.
“'I am an insurance man. I came here to investigate Judge Pettigrew's disappearance. If he is dead my company loses a hundred thousand dollars. You know I didn't kill him!' I stood studying the fellow, and finally asked him straight out, 'Why do you imagine such a thing?'
THE pothunter returned a gaze as intent as my own. ”

“ I had been in Jacksburg three days when the thing happened. Early that morning some one telephoned to my room in the hotel. When I got up and answered it, a man's voice, shaken with excitement, rattled in my ear.
“'This Mr. Glamouran?' I told him it was. 'Mr. Glamouran, something terrible has happened! This is Combs, the banker.'
“The fellow's gasps bit my nerves.
“'Yes, Mr. Combs, go ahead.'
“'Judge Pettigrew was murdered last night. Called out of his home and lynched by unknown parties!'
I STOOD staring at the phone bells. ”

“ Somehow always he is a man; and always, she is a woman!”
MY friend Glamouran sat wrapped in his coat against the gale, musing on his first, and, I had an impression, his last gesture of love toward Lida May. My thoughts flickered out toward the girl herself and I wondered what could have happened to her after the death of her father. I wondered if Killen, the pothunter—— At this point Glamouran began again, leaving a peculiarly distressing gap in his story. ”

“ I think he has a shack down in the swamp on the edge of the lake.' She indicated the cypresses beyond the cotton field.
“'Have you seen his place?'
“'Why, no, of course not! I haven't even talked with him for a long, long time.'
“I stood looking at Lida May, oddly eased by this simple statement. 'It must be rather disagreeable for you, Lida May, this pothunter hanging around the plantation so much.'
“The girl looked up at me very simply. 'Why no-o, I see almost nobody at all, Mr Glamouran. ”

“ When we were away from her, he said in a low tone:
“'It matched.'
“I moved over closer to him, gently, with an idea of flinging myself suddenly upon him.
“He must have understood, for he shook his head faintly, 'Everybody knows you killed the judge, Mr. Glamouran. We all understand you are bound to be a gun-club man and you must have done it to make it look bad for us in court——'
“I looked at him with a most curious sensation prickling my chest and throat. 'Everybody! ”

“ I told the judge we'd have a drink. I got him started.'
“Killen shook his head. 'No use telling the boys that. That would shore put the fat in the fire. They shorely meant to hang the judge that night.' The pothunter peered around the horizon in painful indecision; suddenly he thrust his shotgun in my hands.
“'Git in the house an' stan' by Lida May,' he whispered. 'Stan' 'em off as long as you can. I'll try to git through and come back with the sheriff and the game wardens before it's—too late.'”
GLAMOURAN'S tale ended here. ”

“ This, I reasoned, must lead the way to Buck Killen's shack.
“My impressions of Lida May, the warmth and sweetness of her arms and lips, still clung to me and I thought to myself with a sort of horror, 'Suppose he were her husband; suppose some day she should come scrambling along this miserable footing on the way to her hut and babies,' because, my friend, the wives or women of the pothunters do that very thing. Even along the swampy margin of Reelfoot, human beings still must mate. ”

“ But they have no reason to attack me.'
“'D-did you see any one in the swamp?'
“'A little talk with Mr. Killen. We—understand each other much better. Now come on, let's go back to the house. This story of the pothunters is one of Aunt Creasy's hobgoblins. Nothing will happen. I am trying to arrange your father's estate. I—I couldn't run off in the middle of things like this. I——' I was talking breathlessly, hardly knowing what I said; the light of the sunset was all about us, and suddenly I cried out the real truth in my heart.
“'Oh, Lida May, this is a horrible place. ”