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Title: Dwellers in the Hills

Author: Melville Davisson Post

Release Date: August 30, 2009 [EBook #29851]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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Dwellers in the Hills

By Melville Davisson Post

Author of "Randolph Mason", "The Man of Last Resort," etc.

G. P. Putnam's Sons
New York and London
The Knickerbocker Press
1901

Copyright, 1901
By MELVILLE DAVISSON POST

The Knickerbocker Press, New York

TO
MY MOTHER

CONTENTS

I.--THE OCTOBER LAND

II.--THE PETTICOAT AND THE PRETENDER

III.--THE PASSING OF AN ILLUSION

IV.--CONCERNING HAWK RUFE

V.--THE WAGGON-MAKER

VI.--THE MAID AND THE INTRUDERS

VII.--THE MASTER BUILDERS

VIII.--SOME REMARKS OF SAINT PAUL

IX.--CHRISTIAN THE BLACKSMITH

X.--ON THE CHOOSING OF ENEMIES

XI.--THE WARDENS OF THE RIVER

XII.--THE USES OF THE MOON

XIII.--THE SIX HUNDRED

XIV.--RELATING TO THE FIRST LIARS

XV.--WHEN PROVIDENCE IS PAGAN

XVI.--THROUGH THE BIG WATER

XVII.--ALONG THE HICKORY RIDGES

XVIII.--BY THE LIGHT OF A LANTERN

XIX.--THE ORBIT OF THE DWARFS

XX.--ON THE ART OF GOING TO RUIN

XXI.--THE EXIT OF THE PRETENDER

DWELLERS IN THE HILLS

CHAPTER I

THE OCTOBER LAND

I sat on the ground with my youthful legs tucked under me, and the
bridle rein of El Mahdi over my arm, while I hammered a copper rivet
into my broken stirrup strap. A little farther down the ridge Jud was
idly swinging his great driving whip in long, snaky coils, flicking now
a dry branch, and now a red autumn leaf from the clay road. The slim
buckskin lash would dart out hissing, writhe an instant on the hammered
road-bed, and snap back with a sharp, clear report.

The great sorrel was oblivious of this pastime of his maste