Short Stories, Early October 1923

# "The Iron Chalice" by Hapsburg Liebe

This mountain feud narrative follows Arnold Mason, called "Little Buck Wolfe," a city-educated young man whose engagement to Alice Fair is threatened when she learns his brother Oliver is imprisoned in jail. Oliver, in his cell, reveals a bitter clan war: the Wolfes have fought the Singletons in Tennessee's Wolfe Basin for years, losing multiple family members—Tuck, Biddle, Simon, and others—to Singleton bullets. Oliver demands Arnold abandon his "town dude" ways and join the fight with a rifle.

Arnold accepts his heritage ("Wolfe. Now and forever"), returning to the basin where his father Old Buck Wolfe, recently shot but recovering, prepares for what he claims will be the final confrontation. Old Buck's superstitious mother warns against fighting, having seen a falling star and muddy-water dreams—ill omens. Buck dismisses her supernatural signs and, fully healed, readies the clan for attack.