Seth wrestled with his emotions for some moments in silence. Then the passion left his wrinkled features. He was thoughtful, debating with himself. Finally, his selfcontrol regained, he turned to the waiting multitude before him.
“Maybe Lawyer Todd’s right, boys,” he said with sudden frankness. “Maybe hit’s so that we can’t all go to war agin’ them as kilt our Jim.” He flashed a friendly glance of reassurance over the heads of his followers to where the lawyer stood. “Hit’s different outsider these hills ’an hit is here. We ain’t the only ones a-fightin’ Keeser and his Germins. The whole nation’s a-got hits dander up. Lawyer Todd says that afore the break o’ another spring thar’ll be more’n a million sodjers ’long side o’ us, ready to whop them Germins. I reckon I spoke kinda hasty jest now. We can’t have hit all our way. We’ll jest have to fit in with the rest wharever we can. Hit may be a close fit and hit may pinch at times, boys, but hit’s best. Lawyer Todd and them army men knows. We’ll try and make up our minds to do what they ’lows is fer the good o’ all o’ us.
“So we’ll go down to Jackson town, to that re-cruitin’ office, and axe them sodjer fellers thar to git us to Eurip. They’re showin’ others the way and I reckon they’ll show us. Some o’ us won’t come back, boys, like Jim won’t come back. Some o’ us is liable to lose a arm or a leg. But remember this, boys, wharever ye go or whoever ye’re fightin’, that ye’re men o’ Breathitt. Remember ve’re not only goin’ to kill Germins but to kill the bad name that the world ’as give us. Me and Lawyer Todd stands together on that. We’re goin’ to stop wastin’ powder on our own folks. We’re goin’ to show them people in the Blue Grass and all over the country, that the men o’ these mountings is men no different from them when hit comes to shoulderin’ a rifle-gun and pertectin’ their homes and wimmen and chil’ren. We’re goin’ to make Breathitt stand fer somethin’ else besides Breathitt blood.”
Old Seth picked up his rifle from where he had leaned it against the porch wall. His hand was steady; he pressed the gun over his heart as if to breathe into its lifeless mechanism a part of his own warrior spirit.
“Boys, time’s up,” he said. “War’s on. Jim’s body over yan is callin’ us to come. Hit’s a-callin’ us men o’ the hills, us men o’ Breathitt. We’re a-goin’”—he raised his voice. “Wars on, I say, boys, war’s on; and Keeser and his Germins is goin’ to catch hell—Breathitt hell—and hell a-plenty!”
As their chief concluded a wild yell burst from ten score mountain throats, a weird and ringing yell that surged through the neighboring valleys, beat against the stolid walls of rock and pine, and bounded upward and beyond, the answer of the Breathitt folk to humanity’s call to arms.
Lawyer Todd, a smile lifting the weariness from his face, sat his mare and watched the departure of the little army. There was no saying of farewells to the women and children; there were no handclasps or tears. Old Seth, astride a long-eared mule, led the way. The others straggled after him in irregular order. Those who had mounts rode them; the rest followed on foot. With their packs of food slung over their shoulders, their guns in the crook of their arms, the men filed out of the cabin yard and through the valley toward a distant gap in the hills.
“My people, my people!” softly exclaimed Todd, as he moved after them. “Kentuckians all, Americans all, this day you give the lie to the slander put upon your mountain race. My people, my noble people!”
Dry-eyed women, shading their brows with toil-scarred hands, lingered at their cabin doors, their children clustered about them, and watched their men go by. Occasionally one of them waved, and an answering salute came from among the irregular ranks.
Beyond the western ridges the sun dropped into a saffron sky, crowning with a halo of gold the reborn feudland, touching with mellow light the crags and peaks that stood out proudly in the dusk. High above the misty valleys a bald eagle circled, forward, backward, forward, backward, over the country of warrior clans; while through the distant gap marched mountain men, men of soul and heart and brawn.