Summary
In a cradle of Appalachian mist, where pine needles whisper gossip to the wind, an unlettered foundling named Ruth—her eyes twin bruises of sky—tends goats beside a foster-sire who guzzles moonshine as if it were sacrament. Enter Jules La Clerc, a sinewy psalm of a man carved from hickory and thunderclap; one nocturnal sob, half-wolf, half-lullaby, lures him toward the girl. He ferries her across fog-choked hollows to Du Bois Settlement, a utopian trading post stitched together by lantern-light and barter, yet Ruth drags a spectral shroud: the dread that happiness itself is contraband. Six fecund seasons later, their daughter—sunlight poured into cotton—crowns their union, while Jim Vance, the dissipated foster-fiend, is exiled for petty brigandage. Jules and the sainted Mackenzie fuse mercantile dreams; but at witching hour the cashbox rasps open, and Vance’s revenant silhouette blackmails Ruth with an unspoken sin. Next dawn, coins gone, Mackenzie’s finger jabs at Jules, scandal ignites, and Ruth’s half-truth—"a man fled"—splinters trust. Jules hunts phantoms through tavern and tinder-dry forest until a match-flare from Vance’s cigarette blooms into holocaust, re-igniting pursuit. Dawn finds the rivals chest-to-chest on a rock spine; Jules, bloodied yet unbroken, returns to Ruth and child, the horizon now a cracked cathedral of gold.
Synopsis
Ruth, a young orphan living with her foster father, Jim Vance, a rough mountaineer, who had no idea of life and how it should be lived. Jules La Clerc, also a mountaineer, of whom nature might be generous enough to say, "he was a man." Through a mysterious cry in the night Jules makes the acquaintance of Ruth. After caring for her through her great sorrow, Jules promises to take her to his friend Mackenzie, at the Du Bois Settlement, where her life will be a continuous ray of sunshine. She refuses, saying there is a shadow. At the Du Bois Settlement, the union of Jules and Ruth takes place. Six years elapse, and God has given them his greatest gift, a baby girl. Jim Vance, through his usual bad habits, is ordered out of La Croix Settlement. Now Jules and Mackenzie become partners, in order to enlarge the interests of the trading post. At midnight a sound is heard by Ruth at the cash drawer. As she goes to investigate, she finds it is Jim Vance, who tells her that if she squeals, he will betray her secret. The next morning Mackenzie makes the discovery and blames Jules for stealing the money. A struggle takes place, in which Ruth intercedes, saying that she saw a man leaving the scene of the theft. Jules disbelieves Ruth and goes in search of the man. At the village tavern, Jules finds his man, Jim Vance, and starts a chase. The darkness of the night causes Jules to lose his trail. The following morning Vance, lighting a cigarette, causes a fire in the woods, which puts Jules on his trail again. After a strenuous chase the men meet face to face. Jules, victorious, faces sunshine with his wife and child forever.
