"I am Captain Callomb of F Company," said the officer. "I'm riding
over to Spicer South's house. Did you come to meet me?"
"To meet and guide you," replied a pleasant voice. "My name is Samson
South."
The militiaman stared. This man whose countenance was calmly
thoughtful scarcely comported with the descriptions he had heard of the
"Wildcat of the Mountains"; the man who had come home straight as a
storm-petrel at the first note of tempest, and marked his coming with
double murder. Callomb had been too busy to read newspapers of late. He
had heard only that Samson had "been away."
While he wondered, Samson went on: "I'm glad you came. If it had been possible I would have come to you."
As he told of the letter he had written the Judge, volunteering to
present himself as a witness, the officer's wonder grew.
"They said that you had been away," suggested Callomb. "If it's not an
impertinent question, what part of the mountains have you been visiting?"
Samson laughed.
"Not any part of the mountains," he said. "I've been living chiefly in
New York--and for a time in Paris."
Callomb drew his horse to a dead halt.
"In the name of God," he incredulously asked, "what manner of man are
you?"
"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. Samson outlined
his ambitions for his people. He told, too, of the scene that had been
enacted at Purvy's store. Callomb listened with absorption, feeling
that the narrative bore axiomatic truth on its face.
At last he inquired: "Did you succeed up there--as a painter?"
"That's a long road," Samson told him, "but I think I had a fair
start. I was getting commissions when I left."
"Then, I am to understand"--the officer met the steady gray eyes and
put the question like a cross-examiner bullying a witness--"I am to
understand that you deliberately put behind you a career to come down
here and herd these fence-jumping sheep?"