Bright Leaf

Change was long overdue in the Carolina tobacco country when the lean, horse faced Yankee, John Slight damage to top left side of cover. Barton, called on Major Singleton to sell him an idea. It was a revolutionary idea and it would have made Singleton a fortune, but Singleton thought that Barton was some kind of Yankee joke and, appreciating a joke as much as the next man, he sent him to Brant Royle. Brant was plain no-account, the son of a half-demented itinerant peddler and preacher. It was odd that he had, even as a child, left so permanent a memory in the mind of Major Singleton's daughter, Margaret. It was perhaps equally odd that he appealed to Sonie Lipik, for Sonie was the hard-headed daughter of a Ukrainian immigrant and old Mrs. Lipik knew the value of a dollar. Sonioe however had an insatiable appetite for everything, and nothing could have been more adventurous than a duel with the grim, violent, ambitious Brant. The result was a passionate antagonism. It was John Barton's invention, but it took Brant's driving will, his hatred for the people who ruled the town, to turn a cigarette into a sprawling empire. Inevitably Brant was drawn to the proud Margaret Sngleton, the symbol of all he hated and all he desired. Inevitable too was the ensuing conflict.…