_BY FRANCIS LYNDE_ DAVID VALLORY BRANDED STRANDED IN ARCADY AFTER THE MANNER OF MEN THE REAL MAN THE CITY OF NUMBERED DAYS THE HONORABLE SENATOR SAGE-BRUSH SCIENTIFIC SPRAGUE THE PRICE THE TAMING OF RED BUTTE WESTERN A ROMANCE IN TRANSIT _CHARLES SCRIBNER’S SONS_ DAVID VALLORY [Illustration: It had given him a glow of superecstasy to find that she was familiar with many of the details. (Page 232)] DAVID VALLORY BY FRANCIS LYNDE WITH FRONTISPIECE BY ARTHUR E. BECHER CHARLES SCRIBNER’S SONS NEW YORK :::::::::: 1919 COPYRIGHT, 1919, BY CHARLES SCRIBNER’S SONS Published August, 1919 [Illustration] TO THE RIGHT REVEREND THOMAS FRANK GAILOR BISHOP OF TENNESSEE MY BISHOP, ADVISER, AND FRIEND, THIS BOOK IS AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I. IN THE GREEN TREE 1 II. THE DELUGE 8 III. EBEN GRILLAGE 26 IV. AN HONORABLE DISCHARGE 40 V. GLORIANA 55 VI. THE HENCHMAN 68 VII. A REWARD OF MERIT 89 VIII. OUT OF THE PAST 103 IX. SILAS PLEGG 113 X. THE MIRY CLAY 127 XI. BRIDGE NUMBER TWO 143 XII. UNDER THE HIGH STARS 160 XIII. ALTMAN’S NERVES 173 XIV. THE MUCKER 186 XV. PLEGG’S BACK-FIRE 198 XVI. MASTER AND MAN 207 XVII. THE TAR-BARREL 220 XVIII. IN LOCO PARENTIS 237 XIX. THE ULTIMATUM 251 XX. IN THE ORE SHED 264 XXI. THE OTHER DAVID 277 XXII. AT BRIDGE THREE 293 XXIII. THE KILLER 312 XXIV. NO THOROUGHFARE 323 XXV. CATACLYSMIC 339 XXVI. THE HEART OF QOJOGO 357 XXVII. THE TERROR 370 XXVIII. REGENERATION 381 XXIX. AS IT SHOULD BE 390 DAVID VALLORY DAVID VALLORY I In the Green Tree David Vallory’s train, to make which he had precipitately thrown down pencil and mapping-pen in the drafting room of the Government harbor-deepening project on the Florida coast two days earlier, was an hour late arriving at Middleboro; and in this first home-coming from the distant assignment, the aspect of things once so familiar seemed jarred a trifle out of focus. It was not that the June fields were less green, or the factory suburb through which the long train was slowing more littered and unsightly. But there was a change, and it was in a manner depressive. “Your home town?” inquired the traveler in the opposite half of the Pullman section, as Vallory began to assemble his various belongings. “Yes,” said David, adding, as if in some sort of justification: “I was born here in Middleboro.”