BY WILL N. HARBEN _Author of “The Georgians,” “Abner Daniel,” etc._ SYNOPSIS OF PREVIOUS CHAPTERS In a small Georgia town a friendship has grown up between Pole Baker, reformed moonshiner and an unusual and likable character, and young Nelson Floyd, who was left as a baby in a mountain cabin by an unknown woman just before her death. Floyd, in the face of many trials and temptations, has worked his way up in the world and made a man of himself. Jeff Wade appears at the store, in which Floyd has become a partner, to avenge on him a rumored injustice to Wade’s sister. Pole Baker’s tact prevents a duel by making Floyd see that the unselfish course is for him to avoid a meeting. Cynthia Porter comes to the store, alarmed for Floyd’s safety. On his way home to his family Pole falls a victim to his besetting sin of drink. CHAPTER IV It was Sunday morning a week later. Springtown’s principal church stood in the edge of the village, on the red clay road leading up the mountainside, now in the delicate green of spring, touched here and there by fragrant splotches of pink honeysuckle and white, dark-eyed dogwood blossoms. The building was a diminutive affair, with five shuttered windows on either side, a pulpit at one end and a door at the other. A single aisle cut the rough benches into two halves, one side being occupied by the men and the other by the women. The only exception to this rule was a bench set aside, as if by common consent, for Captain Duncan, who always sat with his family, as did any male guests who attended service with them. The Rev. Jason Hillhouse was the regular pastor. He was under thirty years of age, very tall, slight of build and nervous in temperament. He wore the conventional black frock coat, high-cut waistcoat, black necktie and gray trousers. He was popular. He had applied himself closely to the duties of his calling and was considered a man of character and worth. While not a college graduate, he was yet sufficiently well-read in the Bible and religious literature to suit even the more progressive of mountain churchgoers. He differed radically from many of the young preachers who were living imitations of that noted evangelist, the Rev. Tom P. Smith, “the whirlwind preacher,” in that he was conservative in the selection of topics for discourse and in his mild delivery.