340 THE CALL OF THE CUMBERLANDS



  At Hixon, they found that deceptive air of serenity
which made the history of less than three months ago
seem paradoxical and fantastically unreal. Only about
the court-house square where numerous small holes in
frame walls told of fusillades, and in the interior of the
building itself where the woodwork was scarred and
torn, and the plaster freshly patched, did they find
grimly reminiscent evidence.
  Samson had not met them at the town, because he
wished their first impressions of his people to reach them
uninfluenced by his escort. it was a form of the moun-
tain pride-an honest resolve to soften nothing, and
make no apologies. But they found arrangements made
for horses and saddlebags, and the girl discovered that
for her had been provided a mount as evenly gaited as
any in her own stables:
   When she and her two companions came out to the
hotel porch to start, they found a guide waiting, who
said he was instructed to take them as far as the ridge,
where the Sheriff himself would be waiting, and the
cavalcade struck into the hills. Men at whose houses
they paused to ask a dipper of water, or to make an
inquiry, gravely advised that they "had better light,
and stay all night." In the coloring forests, squirrels
scampered and scurried out of sight, and here and there
on the tall slopes they saw shy-looking children regard-
ing them with inquisitive eyes.
   The guide led them silently, gazing in frank amaze-
 ment, though deferential politeness, at this girl in cord-
 uroys, who rode cross-saddle, and rode so well. Yet,
 it was evident that he would have preferred talking had
 not diffidence restrained him. He was a young man and