Arizona Nights

ER IN

lready the remuda, driven in from the open plains, scattered about the thousand acres of pasture. Away from the convenien

e Rio Grande to the Pacific, to the Kid, who would have given his chance of salvation if he could have been taken for ten years older than he was.

gnoring the presence of the subject of conversation, "what is

e squinted

dogs see something run down a hole, and

comer g

ed "is that you're so plumb alkalied you d

ented Windy Bill drily.

on't say so? Did he com

ted meal. He was a tall, slab-sided individual, with a lean, leathery face, a sweeping white moustache, and a grave and sardonic eye. His leather chaps

ot," suggested Johnny Stone to me in

sal of an urgent invitation to return across a river. Mr. Saca

pped down beside

to be writing a book of memoirs. Sometimes he will open up in good shape, and sometimes he will not. It does no good to ask him

attle filled the air with its diapason. Always the shrill coyotes raved out in the mesquite. Sacatone Bill had finished his meal, and had gone to sit by

enly threw back hi

time I went to Co

whispered th

erybody shifted position the better t

world I'd jump to, and as I seemed to know as little of Colorado and minin' as anything else, I made up the pint of bean soup I call my brains to go there. So I catches me a buyer at Henson and turns over my pore little bunch of cattle a

country not to overlook other folks' plays, but I'd take it mighty k

five year ago, and it's never rained since. I just wanted

my reflection in the winders of a little pl

treet or straight up. It made me plumb lonesome for a country where you could see a long ways even i

breeze that would have frozen the whiskers of hope, and I made a div

IS A

wn it. They had a fifteen-year old kid tendin' b

"but see if you can sort out any rye among

nnin' to sympathise with anythin' lonesome. Then I kind of sau

n a chair, and a nice shiny Jew drummer danglin' his feet from a tabl

girls!

stopped tal

tricks?

riend?" the shiny Je

raised a pet, and then, too, I was so hungry f

ese cow gents?" snic

ster," says I to th

t grinn

ummer in a kind of a way tha

" I begs, tryin'

w any pieces,"

" I asks pr

says

I do,"

sides of her to the pianner. I run the muzzles up and down the k

piece I kn

nd the Jew drummer h

pointed to the winder where they was som

tur'ble. I may be rough, and I ain't never been curried below

ve it,"

, and started out to investi

ut I didn't seem to mind that. I hooked up to another saloon kept by

omes a little Irishman about four foot high, with more upper lip than a muley cow, and enough red hair to make an artificial aurorer borealis. He h

the bar, and stan

Irish and let t

ed back of the end of the bar quick where I wo

note of what the locoed little d

to the bar again, and po

I'm tellin' ye! God bless the Irish a

Dutchy, and goes on swab

asked the man next to me why Dut

says this ma

in' of him,

ys the man, as if th

an four o'clock, neither. No, I don't call four o'clock late. It may be a little

ike our'n-too much timber to be comfortable. At night I got to droppin' in at Dutchy's. He had a couple of quiet games goin', and they was one fellow among that lot of grubbin' prairie dogs

When he was sober he talked minin' high, wide, and handsome. When he was drunk he po

e Dutch rustle!" he yells about

calm as a milk cow,

't take it up without makin' myself out a friend of this Dutchy party, and I couldn't sta

ross between a bulldog and a flamin' red sunset tromp o

wiping glasse

ready yet. Bimeby I make him sick;

eye, and I thinks to myself that may

where. It was a heap long ways to cows; and I'd be teetotally chawed up and spit out if I was goin

Which I was tur'ble surprised at that, but I s

make some mon

" says I, "on

he. "I want you to

. "You bet you! Why, hosses is wher

ays he, calm as

bucko. I don't take no such bla

you to buy all the hosses in this c

"That's a large orde

, I hadn't had no breakfast; but he staked me to a Kentucky breakfast. What's a Kentucky breakfast? Why, a Kentucky brea

asn't many hosses in that country, and what there was the owners hadn't much use for unless

ros and mules?

les same as hosses; burro

mals. We kept them over the hills in some "parks," as these sot

m all?"

skin that's mean, and the

hem,"

want too much

anyway,"

them. It was scand

sel of them was on that one street of their'n, talkin' sixteen ounces to the

, "he ain't celebratin' gettin'

ad. When he caught sight of

he weeps, show

; so I kept that letter-h

st free gold strike you ever see. I'm sending you specimens. There's tons just like it, tons and tons. I got all the claims I can hold myself; but ther

s tr

ry

yes was bulgin' until you could have hung your hat on them. That O'Toole pa

tch rustle!" says he. "And the fool

long. The crowd got the same notion at the same ti

ellow named Jimmy Tack come

you bought off'n me?" says

u do,"

e town for a couple of days, and

I'll see

door I met a

bay mare I sold you? Can you call that sale o

ays I. "I

was another

our troubles. You have to leave town for a couple of day

back of the hog ranch. They was all headed my way

hy's by th

sses?" I asks. "Everyon

looke

market," says he, "but-How much did

ty,"

eighty," says Dutchy; "an

k and bre

e one best hoss," says

th. "If you mean that, Dutchy, you le

k home to where the whole

d canon. Then I called up these miners one at a time, and made bargains with them. Roar! Well, you could hear them at Denver, they tell me, and the weather reports said, "Thunder in t

t country then for a million dollars a minute. I was plumb sick and loathin' it, and just waitin' to mak

some more, but done so; and as fast as each one handed over his dust or dinero he made a rush for his cabin, piled on h

andscape; and there were the two best hosses I had saved out for Dutchy. I was sure some tempted. But I had enough to get home on anyway; and I never yet drank behind th

s way, and carryin'

ays I, dumpin' the four

efted them. Then he p

that for

ou," s

ain't that mu

he, "and you might have s

know I woul

his had flew. "You see, I was behind th

eel better about bein'

tle ways withou

goin' to join t

, jinglin' of his go

you, you are sure goin' to get l

no gold cla

y Smith-"

no Henry Sm

oak in about

n," I pleads. "Please sa

," he allows. "Nice limestone

're a marv

ther down to D

pped o

those hosses and go somewheres else. May

I will,

up the paper he was carry

CH HAS

mes back from that little pasear into Buck Canon. But why not tack

ign sideways, "you see I sold this plac