he far side of the rock, and on he went by a
detour which, in due course, brought him out to the road once more at
that panel of fence where Boone Wellver still sat perched in the deep
preoccupation of his thoughts. These reflections focussed about the
stranger who had lately ridden by, and as Gregory paused, with no
revealing sign in his face of the events of the past half-hour, the boy
blurted out the fulness of his interest.

"Asa, did ye find out who _is_ he? Did ye see thet _sward_ he hed
hangin' ter his saddle, an' did ye note all them qu'ar contraptions he
was totin' along with him?"

"I didn't hev overly much speech with him," was the grave response. "But
he 'lowed he'd done come from acrost ther waters--from somewhars in
t'other world. I reckon he's done travelled wide."

"His looks hain't none common nuther!" Boone's eyes were sparkling; his
imagination galloping free and uncurbed. "I've done read stories about
kings an' sich-like, travellin' hither an' yon unbeknownst ter common
folks. What does ye reckon, Asa, mout _he_ be su'thin' like thet? A king
or su'thin?"

"Ef so be he's a king," opined Asa Gregory drily, "he's shore done
picked him out a God-fersaken place ter go a'travellin' in." The dark
eyes riffled for a moment into a hint of covert raillery. "Ye didn't
chanst ter discarn no crown, did ye, Booney, pokin' a gold prong or two
up outen them saddle pockets?"

Boone Wellver flushed brick-red and straightway his words fell into a
hot disclaimer of gullibility. "I hain't no plum, daft idjit. I didn't,
ter say, _really_ think he was a king--but his looks _wasn't_ none
common."

The older kinsman granted that contention and for a while they talked of
Victor McCalloway, but at length Asa shifted the subject.

"A week come Monday," he informed the boy, "thar's a'goin' ter be a
monstrous big speakin' at Marlin Town. Ther Democrat candi_date_ fer
Governor aims ter speechify an' I 'lowed mebby ye'd love ter go along
with me an' listen at him."

Whenever Asa yielded to the temptation of teasing his young cousin he
hastened to make amends for the indulgence and now the boy's face was
ashine with anticipation.

Customarily in Kentucky from the opening of the campaign to the day of
election the tide and sweep of political battle runs hot and high. But
in that autumn of 1899 all precedents of party feeling were engulfed in
a tidal wave of bitterness and endowed with a new ferocity ominously
akin to war.