Page:Randall Parrish--My Lady of the South.djvu/174

MY LADY OF THE SOUTH "You fear to tell me the truth?"

"No, not that; but I do not feel quite certain of the final outcome. Both Calvert Dunn and his father hold you merely as an emissary of Daniels, and would treat you as they would him, if he ever fell into their hands. We have not known much about law in this region, Lieutenant King, and men have learned to wreak their own vengeance. I cannot picture to you what the bitterness of a mountain feud means." She pressed her hands to her eyes as if to shut out the memory, yet went steadily on, her soft voice trembling with emotion. "I—I have seen so much of it; from my very babyhood I have lived amid scenes of violence—burned homes, women and children suffering and destitute; men shot down from ambush; and outrages unspeakable. War is terrible, but a mountain feud turns human beings into fiends. For years no life in all this region was safe; the murderer prowled among the rocks, even crept into the home, to strike down his victim. It was a constant butchery, and every crack of a rifle brought agony."

Her words, the deep intensity of her utterance, told how clearly she recalled it all. She stopped, breathing heavily, one hand reaching out to the door for support.

"But why should it be? We know nothing of such conditions in the North. What caused all this fighting?"

"I—I heard the story," speaking now almost wearily, "but it is too silly to repeat. Way back, they say a hundred years ago, when the first settlers came, some controversy arose between the Danielses and the Donalds. Blood was shed, and, little by little, every relative was [ 164 ]