Not a cry, not a tear, not a groan, not even a quiver of the world-worn mouth and brow. Only an expression of incredulity that hardened into sternness.
“Dead?—dead! My Jim dead.” Then, after a while, “Hit’ll go plumb hard with his ma, her Jimmy dead.” The keen eyes widened and the wrinkled face was lifted to the hills.
Directly, in a calm, low voice: “Tell me, lawyer, who kilt him? How was he kilt, my Jim?”
“He was killed in action, Seth, killed by ‘Keeser and his Germins’ while bombing an enemy’s trench.”
“Bombing a trench! Whar in hell was his rifle-gun?”
“He wasn’t using it then.” Todd drew on his imagination. “But he sold out at a high figger, Seth, that boy of yours. A dozen Germans went down before they got him.”
The old man’s eyes flashed. “Ye say they did? Jim he kilt a dozen of ’em?” His friend nodded. “Lord!—now don’t that beat all!” Seth chuckled an unhealthy chuckle. “Kilt a dozen of ’em!”
When he next spoke, however, it was briefly and through lips parched and drawn.
“Wal, I reckon that settles hit. Yas, lawyer, I reckon that mighty nigh settles hit.” And with shoulders bent forward, his chin in his hand, the old man lapsed into lonely meditation.
Todd left him there, seated on the stile, and with a sigh of relief that his mission had been thus far accomplished, rode his mare around to the barn. The Breathitt country that day vibrated with a silent but compelling call. Bare-footed couriers, wizards of short cut and bypath, slipped through valley and over ridge, up rocky creek bed and down steep decline, bearing a message from their chief. The lesser clan heads received the message; and from beneath their clapboard roofs, they in turn sent forth couriers to their followers. Along the waters of Troublesome, Middle Fork, Quicksand and Kentucky River, the word flashed. A hushed suspense closed over the hills. Men greeted one another in undertones, sensing rather than speaking what each had in mind. Action was the necessity of the hour; swift, tense action that tarried neither to question nor to reason, but obeyed.