Wolfville

moved his chair a bit more into the shade, "it's some'ers over in the fo

ettled on Wolfville and its volatile inhabitants. I asked to be enlightened as to the sage Enright, and was informed that, aside f

ued the old gentleman. "However, I don't aim to be held as sa

een the cow springs an' the Floridas, when one night a Mexican runs off a passel of our ponies. The hoss-hustler is asleep, I reckons, at the time this Mexican stacks in. He says

pedes a bunch of ponies that a-way they don't hold together like cattle, but plunges off diffusive. It's every bronco for himse

m, huddles what he can together-as I says meb

right, Jack Moore, an' myse'f is on the trail. Tutt an' Dan Boggs

bby it's fifteen minutes. We're smellin' along a canyon to find it ag'in, when from over a p'int of rocks we hea

y, an' it's over in a minute. Thar's two Mexicans,-our criminal trackin' up with a pard that mor

He don't manage to do no harm, nohow, more'n he creases my hoss a little. However, as this yere hoss is amazin' low-sperited, an' as bein' burnt that a-way with a bullet sorter livens him up a heap, I don't complain none. Still Enright's al

our ponies in the first place, he throws up his hands an

hand an' foot, wrist an' fetlock, an' then goes into

down the draw with him, so's we ain't offended none by the vision of him spraddled out that a-way dead. Thi

-way to accept; 'it ain't that I'm refined none-which my nacher is shore coarse-I jest sorter protests in my bosom ag'in havin' a corpse

, except he's some raveled an' frayed coastin' along where it's rocky, an' which can't be he'ped none,

e due to bother us a lot. We're plumb sixty miles from Tutt an' the boys, an' ridin' herd on this yere saddle-colored gent, a-keepin' of him from lopin' off, is mighty likely to be a h

neither; but it's onconsiderate that a-way to go an' ca'mly kill a pris'ner, an' no co't nor committee authorizin' the same.

took; but, as I states, it's a cinch it'll be a heap fatiguin' keepin' cases on this yere Mexican till we meets up with a quo

s along the trail, I reckons you'll shorely have to shoot. Thar's no pass-out then but down him, an' we sadly treads tharin. An',' goes on Enright, some thoughtful, if this yere Mexican, after we-alls is that patient an' liberal with him, abuses our confidences an' escapes, we leaves it a lone-hand play to

o wheel sudden an' go plungin' across. But Jack gets him in midstream. As he goes over the bronco's shoulder, hat

hoss our way,' says jack. "It saves splashin' a

at Enright says about the time the Mexicans dow

find myse'f relatin' it to any excessive degrees. It draws the cinch some tig

of white chips an' stands in on the deal in a boyish way. All I saveys of the war is it's ag'in the Mexi

n we tie down an' brand, when some Mexicans gets us out on a limb. It ain't a squar' deal; still I reckons

cess of Casa Grande. Which the repoote of this yere Princess woman is bad, an' I strikes a story several times of how she's that incensed a

ore that good lookin' a pinto pony don't compare tharw

s up at her hacienda an'

a shorthorn who matches me for age; which hi

s yere Willis an' me. I sees a show one time when I'm pesterin' 'ro

n' Pythias. Them two people's all right, an' game. An' they shore d

f, an' ever since I make

erly views them two ge

in's. We-alls jumps outen the corral together back in Tennessee, an' g

hin' before, nor then, nor after. which I lo

the same gets all of us before we're through. An' it gets my Jim Willis speshul. "Mebby it's the third mornin' after we- alls meanders into thi

ry an' ongrateful part is that the Princess sends one of her own peonies scoutin' 'round in the hills to bring in this band of cattle-eaters onto us. "'When the lieutenant hears of the perfidy of the Princess female, he's that mortified he gets a pistol t

chips abrupt. "'No, as I states,' says Enright, musin' to himse'f, 'if the lieutenant had o

second, an' we-alls would still talk well of him. "'As it is, however, this riotous female

se name is Tate- -Bill Tate-never leaves them hills till the last of that outfit's got his heap of rocks piled up, with its little pine cross stickin' outen the peak tharof, showin' he's done jumped this earthly game for good. "'This Bill Tate an' me bre

"says Tate lookin' at the sky sorter black an' ugly, "only since you-all has the leesure, wha

to be neglected complete. It's easy as a play; every hoss-thief of 'em lives right in these yere valleys, for I hears 'em talk. All we has to do is sa'nter back in t

umb dealt out, an' we win. When Tate crosses the Rio Grande with the army goin' back, he shorely has the skelp of eve

n't do them Greasers. They puts up a claim that some Americans tracks u

s tinkles, an' declines the lieutenant emphatic. "'They p'ints out this yere lieutenant dies in his own game, on his own deal. It's no racket of theirs, an' it don't go to match the

how the thing sizes up. "`"One of us is shorely elected to trail out after the lieutenant,"says Tate. "The rest they

for the outfit puts six beans in a buckskin bag. Five is white an' one's black. Them Greasers is on the gamble bigger'n wolves, an' they crowds up plenty gleeful

ken Bill backs off with a white bean. "`When the third gent turns out a white bean the shadow begins to fall across Jim Willis an' me. I looks at Jim; an' I gives it to you straight when I says that I ain't at that time thinkin' of myse'f so much as about Jim. To see this yere deal, black as midnight, closin' in on Jim, is what's hurtin'; it don't somehow occur to me I'm likewise up ag'in the iron my

the one to pull for the next bean. Jim's still lo

e your draw,

in' a step off from the ba

urn an' my draw, an' Jim has to take what's left. So t

r's no use you-all gettin' the short end of this. Thar's reasons for you livin', which my case is void

beans is all a he

an' you beats the deal as it is. Thar's a difference in beans same as in ponies. Black beans is rough like a cactus compared to white beans, which said last vegetable is shorely as smooth as glass.

ves me; it's long enough ago now. The old lady says: "Samyool, never let me hear of you weakenin'. Be a man, or a mouse, or a long-tail rat." So when Jim lays it off about them two beans bein'

eed so much to stagger me. "`I recollects like it was in a vision hearin' Jim laugh. "Sam," he says, "I reads you like so much sunshine. An' I shorely fools you up a lot. Don't you reckon I allows you'll double o

as lie says "ADIOS," an' the next is the" bang! "of the Mexicans's guns.

now that you-alls is fully informed why I appears averse to Greasers, I reckons I'll slumber some. I never d

s a long time quiet, like he's asleep. Jack Moore an' me ain't sayin' nothin'; merely settin' thar

me when he onfolds about the habits of them beans. It takes seven months, a iron constitootion, an' three