Produced by Suzanne Shell, Martin Pettit, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net FRANK OF FREEDOM HILL BY SAMUEL A. DERIEUX [Illustration: Publisher's logo] WITH A FRONTISPIECE IN COLOUR GARDEN CITY NEW YORK DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY 1922 [Illustration: _Old Frank and Tommy_] COPYRIGHT, 1922, BY DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY ALL RIGHTS RESERVED, INCLUDING THAT OF TRANSLATION INTO FOREIGN LANGUAGES, INCLUDING THE SCANDINAVIAN COPYRIGHT, 1917, 1918, 1919, 1920, 1921, BY THE CROWELL COMPANY PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES AT THE COUNTRY LIFE PRESS, GARDEN CITY, N. Y. TO DR. BLANCHE COLTON WILLIAMS WHO BELIEVED I COULD WRITE CONTENTS PAGE I. THE DESTINY OF DAN VI 1 II. PARADISE REGAINED 28 III. THE BOLTER 51 IV. OLD FRANK SEES IT THROUGH 74 V. AN ACT OF GOD 100 VI. COMET 122 VII. THE CRISIS IN 25 147 VIII. THE TRIAL IN TOM BELCHER'S STORE 167 IX. THE PURSUIT 194 X. THE LITTLE BOY IN THE BLACKBERRY PATCH 219 XI. BLOOD MONEY 245 XII. THE CALL OF HOME 266 FRANK OF FREEDOM HILL I THE DESTINY OF DAN VI The baggageman slid open the side door of the car. With a rattle of his chain Dan sprang to his feet. A big red Irish setter was Dan, of his breed sixth, and most superb, his colour wavy-bronze, his head erect and noble, his eyes eloquent with that upward-looking appeal of hunting dog to hunting man. Cold, pine-laden air deluged the heated car and chilled his quivering nose and swelled his heaving chest. Beyond the baggageman he saw through the open door, as on a moving-picture screen, sunlit fields and sunlit woods whirling past. He began to bark at them eagerly, his eyes hungry, his tail beating against the taut chain an excited tattoo. The baggageman turned with a grin. "Birds?" he said. At the word the dog reared straight up like a maddened horse. Full-throated angry barks, interspersed with sharp, querulous yaps, filled his roaring, swaying prison. How long since he had got so much as a whiff of untainted air, or a glimpse of wild fields and woods! Out there oceans of such air filled all the space between the gliding earth and the sky. Out there miles on miles of freedom were rushing forever out of his life. He began to rage, to froth at the mouth. The baggageman closed the door. "Hard, old scout!" The baggageman shook his head. Resignedly the dog sank on his belly, his long body throbbing, his nose between his paws. A deep sigh puffed a little cloud of dust from the slatted floor.