A Maid of the Kentucky Hills.

by Edwin Carlile Litsey.

CHAPTER ONE

IN WHICH I GO TO 'CROMBIE

When a man of thirty who has been sound and well since boyhood suddenly realizes there is something radically wrong with him, it amounts almost to a tragedy.

It was mid-March when I became convinced that I was "wrong." Near the close of winter I had developed a hacking cough with occasional chest pains, but with masculine mulishness had refused to recognize any untoward symptoms. I was not a sissy, to let a common cold frighten me and send me trembling to the doctor. I began to lose flesh and grow pale, whereas I had been of fine frame, and decidedly athletic. Then I discovered a fleck of crimson on my handkerchief one day after a hard coughing spell. I got up from my desk with unsteady knees and a chilly feeling down my spine, and went to 'Crombie. He was generally known as Abercrombie Dane, M. D., but we grew up hand in hand, as it were, and so--I went to 'Crombie. He was a fine, big animal; head of a Hercules and strength of a jack and sense like Solon. A rare man.

I told him my tale shamefacedly, for I realized now I had acted a fool, and that maybe my day of grace had pa.s.sed. He knew I was scared, for he was sensitive, in spite of his bulk and seeming brusqueness. There was pity in his eyes before I finished, and I had to grapple with myself to keep the moisture out of mine, his sympathy was so real.

Then I silently gave him the handkerchief, with the telltale stain.

He looked at it absently, and rubbed it gently with the tip of one big finger.

"My son," he said--it was an affectionate form of address which he nearly always employed--"you are starting a colony."

His deep voice was very steady.

"A _what_?" I demanded.

"Bugs," he replied, laconically, and looked me squarely in the eyes.

"_Bugs!_" I cried, feeling the cold hand of Fear at my heart.

He shut his lips tightly, and nodded three or four times.

For a few moments I was literally and positively paralyzed. I felt as if he had p.r.o.nounced sentence of death. 'Crombie had dropped his eyes, and his broad, strong face was serious.

My nature is buoyant, and presently the reaction came.

"Are they crawlin' yet, Doc?" I asked, a smile struggling to my lips.

I cannot understand now why I asked that question. Perhaps it was a foolish attempt at bravado in the presence of a serious fact just discovered.

He did not answer. He recognized the query as flippant, and his nature was deep. He sat looking at the floor a long time, and I did not intrude again upon his thoughts. But I imagined I felt a tickling beneath my ribs, as of many tiny feet at work. _Bugs!_ Ugh!

At last 'Crombie's s.h.a.ggy head came up.

"There's a chance--a good chance," he said, and I felt courage spreading through me like wine, for 'Crombie never spoke hastily, nor at random.

"Sea voyages and high alt.i.tudes wouldn't hurt," he resumed, "but you haven't the money for them. Still you've got to hike from town, my son.

Change is all right, but pure air and coa.r.s.e, good food is your cue. The k.n.o.b country is not far away. There you'll find all you'd find in New Mexico or Colorado or Arizona, and be in praying distance of the Almighty to boot. I know the spot for you, my son. It is a great k.n.o.b which stands in the midst of a vast range, and it is belted with pine and cedar trees. Find or build you a shack on it half way up and stay there for a year. That's your prescription, my son."

"It's a devilish hard one to take!" I protested, in my ignorance.

"Condemned men are not usually so particular as to their method of escape," he admonished, with a half smile.

Then he fell to thinking again, with his finger on his eyebrow. It was a peculiar att.i.tude, which I had never seen in anyone else. I sat still, hoping he was evolving some pleasanter plan for my redemption. He was trying to change me into a hillbilly, a savage! I looked at my white hands and carefully kept nails, at my neat business suit and shining shoes, and a slow rebellion awoke within me. I had about decided to ignore 'Crombie and seek more comforting advice, when his rumbling voice came again.

"It's mighty good authority which says you can't kick against the p.r.i.c.ks. Don't try it, my son. Before we begin final arrangements I want to ask you a question. Have you ever heard of the life-plant?"

I gazed at him keenly, for the query did not savor of sanity. I knew that his researches in botany almost equalled his skill in medicine, but in some vague way I suspected a trick. His expression disarmed me. It not only was genuine, but yearning. I have never seen the same look in a man's eyes before or since.

"No; I never heard of it," I replied. "What is it?"

His answer was spoken slowly and meditatively.

"From the same source we get our hint regarding the p.r.i.c.ks, we read of a tree whose leaves are for the healing of the nations. Nature is the mother of medicine. There is nothing in pharmaceutics that has not a direct origin from vegetable, animal, or mineral life. It is my belief that there is a remedy for every human ill if we could only lay our hands on it. This brings us to your case, and the life-plant."

"Are you giving me straight goods, 'Crombie'?" I demanded, my suspicions rising again.

"It is half legend, my son, I'll admit, but I have strong reasons for believing it does exist. It's an Indian tale."

"Probably bosh," I muttered, my common sense at bay.

"I think not," he answered, calmly and soberly.

"Have you ever seen it?" I challenged.

"No, but that doesn't disprove it. Listen to me. The life-plant is the most peculiar growth in nature, and cannot be confounded with anything else. The princ.i.p.al accessories to its full development are pure air and sunshine, hence it is found only in the still places of the woods and valleys. It is exceedingly rare. You might spend a year searching for it under the most favorable conditions, and find only one specimen. Again, you might find none. So far as science has gone, it grows from neither seed, bulb, nor root. It seems to germinate from certain elemental conjunctions, attains maturity, flowers and dies. It may appear in the cleft of a rock, on the side of a mountain range, or in the rich mold of a valley. It claims no special season for its own, but may come in December as well as in June. It springs from snow as frequently as from summer gra.s.s. This is how it looks. It is about twelve inches high. Its stem is a most vivid green; its leaves are triangular, of a bright golden color, and the flower, which comes just at the top, is a collection of clear little globules, like the berries of the mistletoe.

They are clearer and purer than the mistletoe berry, however. In fact, they are all but transparent, and might readily be mistaken for a cl.u.s.ter of dewdrops. Therein lies the efficacy of this strange plant.

Gather the bloom carefully, immerse it in a gla.s.s of water for twelve hours, then drink the decoction entire. It will rout your embryo colony, and make you sound and strong as I."

He leaned back and slapped his chest with his open hand.

"You're dopey, 'Crombie," I said, doubting, but longing to believe him.

He wheeled around to his desk.

"All right, my son. You came to me for advice, and got it. I consider that I've done my duty by you."

"Oh, come now!" I pleaded, ready to conciliate. "That's an awful c.o.c.k-and-bull story you've handed me, and you mustn't get huffy if it doesn't go down without choking. I'll try to swallow it, 'Crombie. I do appreciate your advice, and I'm going to try and take it;--but tell me more about this infernal flower."

"Not infernal," he corrected, mollified; "but supernal. I don't think there's any more to tell. Your stunt is to search till you find it, then follow directions."

"You say it grows anywhere?" I continued, a.s.suming interest.

"Where there's pure air and sunshine," he repeated.

"And grows out of _snow_, 'Crombie?"

"As well as out of warm soil," he averred, doggedly.