HardcastleIn 1931 William Music is making his way back home to Virginia when he hops off a freight train in Switch County, Kentucky, to find something to eat. For eleven cents--all the money in his pocket--he buys a soda bottle's worth of moonshine. Farther down the road, he takes two turnips and a handful of string beans from a kitchen garden and beds down for the night in a haystack. It is still dark out when he wakes up to a dog licking his forehead and a man pointing a pistol in his face. Despite the awkward introduction, Music and Regus Bone are soon friends. Bone is a guard at Hardcastle Coal Co., whose owner will do anything to keep his employees from unionizing. For the irresistible wage of three dollars a day, Music--outfitted with an ancient, misfiring revolver and a holster made from a feed sack--hires on as a watchman despite his queasy feelings about the job. His attraction to the young widow of a miner killed by a former guard only deepens his discomfort, and when he and Bone catch a pair of union organizers, they make a decision that will change their lives and Switch County forever. Inspired by real events, Hardcastle is a stirring tribute to the power of friendship and family in a time and place in which the price of integrity is more than a man on his own can bear. |
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Page 97
... Mink Slide , where , for nearly a month , guards had to be posted in order to keep the striking miners from killing them and in order to keep them from sneaking off and beating it back to Alabama . " I heard the guards didn't do a ...
... Mink Slide , where , for nearly a month , guards had to be posted in order to keep the striking miners from killing them and in order to keep them from sneaking off and beating it back to Alabama . " I heard the guards didn't do a ...
Page 129
... Mink Slide . But he didn't get far . He was no more than twenty yards up into the hollow from the pike before first one nigger's dog and then another began to bark and yap . Perhaps they heard him , but since such breeze as there was ...
... Mink Slide . But he didn't get far . He was no more than twenty yards up into the hollow from the pike before first one nigger's dog and then another began to bark and yap . Perhaps they heard him , but since such breeze as there was ...
Page 200
... Mink Slide last night , and they know what you and Regus done . " " Killed a man ? " Music said . " Yes , and they's another , a nigger man that might die too , for he was bad shot . " " Come on , " he told her ; " we'll get you back to ...
... Mink Slide last night , and they know what you and Regus done . " " Killed a man ? " Music said . " Yes , and they's another , a nigger man that might die too , for he was bad shot . " " Come on , " he told her ; " we'll get you back to ...
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Common terms and phrases
ancient Walker arms Arturo Zigerelli Baldwin-Felts barn Bear Paw began Bill Music bitch Bone bucksaw carbide lamp Cawood Cecil chest coal coffee commissary company houses damned dogtrot door Elkin eyes face feller felt Fetlock finger fire fool goddamned gonna Grady guard guess hands heard hell Hellkatoot Hit ain't Hit's Kenton Hardcastle killed kitchen laughed mason jar Merlee Mink Slide Momma mountain mouth Music asked Music saw Music thought National Miners Union neck never nigger night nodded nuthin once opossum pistol pocket rabbit ragged reckon Regus looked Regus's road sack seemed shack sheriff shirt shook his head shoot shot shotgun shoulder Sid Hatfield side somehow spat squatterville sure Switch County tell thing tobacco told Tom Harmon took truck Tucker turned Valle Crucis voice walk Walker Colt watched window woman wondered young