The Sunset Trail

't been for Jack. It was a circulation scheme proposed by Jack, and adopted by Higginson Peabody, which undid the destinies of the Weekly Planet to such a degree that, in the quicksands of a

nd comfort of their countenance, and despite the fact that Mr. Masterson's recommendation had originally paved his way into journalism, who misled that officer a

pointed out the frigid character of those four kings, and thereupon Rattlesnake, in a feeling of chagrin natural to one who finds himself dete

ner and form set forth. The editorial and mechanical forces of the Weekly Planet, made up of Higginson Peabody, Jack, and a trio of printers, were hard at work at the ti

e was so disappointing, Rattlesnake, the evening being warm, had cast aside his coat and hat. Being more or less preoccupi

rom the saddle to Higginson Peabody. The latter

t you don't want?"

nd it may have been this stock of ironware that awoke the generosity of Higginson Peabody. Whatever it was to move h

ins to ride away Rattlesnake

e damage?"

igginson Peabody; "th

Rattlesnake, pointing up at the sign above

k, who was the circulating

t to Jack. "Put down Rattlesnake Sanders for five years." Then, as he buried a spur in h

ore he heard of the gay doings of Rattlesnake. When word reached him he threw a saddle onto a pony and started in p

asked Mr. Masterson, on the bare chance that the p

coat and hat," repli

son, settling himself in his stirrups for a r

y could answer, Jack to

ing westward towards the Cimarron Crossing. "He lined out in t

everse of that given by Jack. The intervention, and the brisk falsehoods so cheerfully fulminated, took away the

wondering horror; "how could you lie like that, and you but fourteen! That Ra

ap: "I reckon I'd better go over to the Alhambra an' see how hard old Kell got plugged. It ought to be good for a

Street bank. But the old migratory instinct of his puritan ancestry was rife within him, and he hungered to go

. Massachusetts and Boston aren't what they were.

e. The soil, by the friend's word, was kindly; Higginson Peabody thought it would nourish and upbuild a paper. Wherefore, one bright autumnal morn

nd of Higginson Peabody un

en you decided to come to

separating each finger from its fellows, "do you th

s to rock its cradle and warm

t. As information radiated from the Long Branch the extre

. The tall, shiny hat excited the primitive interest of Cimarron Bill, who lightly shot it from the head of its owner. Then, with bullet following bullet, he rolled it along the sidewalk. Several gent

ap sh

terson, "and going to start a pa

l. "If I do I hope to go afoot th

ch, bringing Mr. Short. Higginson Peab

ught to have told you. That breed of war

d Mr. Short; "only sooic

noticed that Higginson Peabody looked c

," returned Higginso

right: "It'll grow in Dodge. See if i

hereof he was proprietor, and prese

d a Stetson as ever rode in a round-up! Price?

latter's advent the two sat convenient to the hotel bar and talked of Indians. That is,

t kill and scalp anybody about Dodge between then and Christmas. Mr. Wright set his limit at Christmas because that

nters along the Medicine Lodge and the Cimarron whom they, the Cheyennes, might capture and burn at the stake. This would, so Mr. Wright argued, slake the Cheyenne thir

efore we have 'em routed. Sure; we down three times as many of them as they do of us. Which reminds me: come down to

hambra. Also, he had Mr. Kelly, who was their custodian, bring out the eighty scalps, and counted them into the shrinking fingers of Higginson

" asked Mr. Wright, a

d picking out a brace of scalps whereof the braided hair was unusually l

said he would one day write up wha

k of Dodge. They would make the trip on ponies. Mr. Wright held that

know nothing of the country you're in? As for Cheyennes, you need ente

ight behind a swell and Higginson Peabody found himself surrounded by naught save the shadowless plains-as grimly stark as when they slipped from the palm of the Infinite! The ve

Higginson Peabody where a party of emigrants had bee

inted to the ashes of a fire. The Cheyenn

didn't have any stake. The best they could do was tie him, wrist and

ge?" faltered Hi

essly, "if my memory serves,

they were winding

med Mr. Wright, and h

sin which, apparently, he

oice to a whisper. "Warm, too; that moccas

shook a little. The moccasin was warm. It could hardly have bee

glanced fur

kin out for Do

aying so when a medley of yelps and yells broke forth. Higginson Peabody cast a look to the

utstrip an antelope. The latter gave that animal its head and the scenery began racing rearw

. Wright. "To be captur

ned and whistled-new sounds to the shrinking ears of Higginson Peabody! Now and again a bullet scuttered alo

gasped. "Tell Mast

Mr. Wright's pony, evidently as badly woun

last! Drawing a deep breath he swept

ns!" yelled Hig

to the left. Higginson Peabody, by these abrupt manoeuvres, was spilled from the saddle "like

convenient ball. After a prolonged roll

cried to Mr. Kelly,

sionate judgment of both Mr. Kelly and Mr. Short, who, from their respective houses of entertainment, reviewed the feat, that he did those one hundred yards in better than ten seconds. Indeed, so much was popular

igginson Peabody when stop

ouble?" asked

ugitive, making an effo

haken off, "it's only a joke. What you need

odge had done much to shake, Cimarron Bill and a select bevy, clad in full Cheyenne regalia, faces painted, blankets flying, fe

ill, giving the counter a resounding slap

s to you, stranger! An' let me say," concluded Mr. Short, while a colour of compliment sh

r. Wright's further acquaintance, but Mr. Masterson and Mr. Kelly explained that to d

count. It's only folks we like an' intend to adopt int

came up. "Which we shore wouldn't take that m

les be bound in red. He pointed out an inherent interest to abide in red and quoted its effect on turkey gobblers. On the other hand, black, the usual cover-colour of Bibles, was a hue sorrowful and repellant; so far from inviting human interest, it daunted it. Higginson Peabody insisted that were every

e daily or rather nightly doings at Mr. Kelly's Alhambra, Mr. Short's Long Branch, Mr. Webster's Alamo, and Mr. Peacock's Dance Hall, to say nothing of the Dodge Opera House and Mr. Wright's store, and which caused every reader to pick up the paper with pleasure and lay it down with regret. Also, it was Jack who taught Higginson Peabody t

mall; the paper could be passed from hand to hand; those thirty-four copies, during the seven days when they were fresh, were read and appreciated by every eye in Dodge. Under such circumstances

he thought of starting a baby contest. The paper wou

her in each marvellous instance held her darling to be a cherub fresh descended from on high. That mother would make tr

jingle a spur in Dodge who's game to act as judge. But," continued Jack, when Higginson Peabody, impressed by the serpent-like wisdom of his young assistant, had abandoned every notion of a baby contest, "I

n, free, for the best pie, any sort or species, sent to its editorial rooms, accom

st the ladies," said Jack, "a

estion. Hailing from what Mr. Warner called "the region of perpet

dy also added that it was beyond his own geniu

windows of a hurdy-gurdy o

judge," s

ediate exhibition. The Weekly Planet jumped from thirty-four t

ed apple, the sedate pumpkin, the consoling custard, the flippant plum; every variety of dr

ay of that rivalry pies had accumulated on the premises of the Weekly Planet by the gross. They were stacked up in tiers of twelve on the editorial table, they covered printing-press and make-up stones, there were no chairs left and ha

no wise foresaw the pie-deluge which would set in. Still, being of the material from which heroes are made, Jack bore himself doughtily. The first day he ate

ppose, and I'll sell my life dearly; but what's the

peared about the office, like some criminal ghost obliged to haunt the scenes of its malefactions. And Jack was still capable of a suggest

eman came to Higginson Peabody wearing a look of defeat. Eve

rs. "It was a lemon pie Miss Casey made that floored him. To get the kinks out o' Bill I had t

Peabody, desperately. "We'll be buri

s corral, the foreman went to Cimarron and arranged for the disposal of present as well as future pies at the rate of a dollar the dozen pies, to Mr. Ingalls of the Golden Rod resta

ve a social hour with a valued friend, resident of that hamlet, when her glance was arrested by a certain pie in the window of the Golden Rod. It was of the mince family, and its top crust was ornamented with sundry nicks and flourishes, made by the point

?" was the question which Aunt Nettie put. The

ttie that he didn't know. Mr. Ingalls said that the particular pie to which

got it of that beanstalk editor. I'll show that cheap Yank

me in. Jack, being a frontier lad and keen to every sign of danger, realised the storm in its approa

do, Miss Daw

Aunt Nettie, manner as brittle and as hard as gla

me trapped animal, he could only look at Aunt Nettie

allowed you'd dee-fraud us ladies of Dodge into bakin

, Aunt Nettie at their angry head, were moving on the office of the Weekly Planet. They found the door closed and locked. Mr. Masterson, urged by Jack and realising the danger, had been before the

ers, "he's simply got to come out, an' we'll jest nacherall

e like wildfire. With scared faces Mr. Wright, Mr. Masterson, Mr. Short, Mr. Trask, Mr. Kel

o be understood as shirking a duty, but if I'd known there was to be

ade a despai

"felt so he'pless an' unprotec

can we do? Thar's them ladies on the warpath, an' Aunt Nettie at their head! She's that inflexible, granite's

on Bill, who stood listening. "Wh

n Bill and in another moment that hard-riding gentleman and a dozen hard-riding companions were cinching the hulls onto their ponies in Mr. Tra

his mates came charging across. Their ruminations suffered further disturbance when, with headlong speed, those charging ones fell bodily upon them, rounded them up, hurled them into the river and sent them for

alanx, with the urgent riders whooping and dashing

ss Dawson, dear!" she screamed,

e their betrayed pies, had scattered like a flock of blackbirds. Aunt Nettie was the last to go. She gazed at the oncoming cattle as they swept down upon the Wee

ied after the others. The next moment the pushing, milling, foaming band were jammed and

with a lead pony by the bridle, made

lead pony the moment that journalist could be prevailed on to open his doors; "into the saddle

bridle at the boundary line between Ford and Gray

," he said; "catch the

Peabody, quaveringly, "that after the

n firmly sho

es, and you know what ladies are! I'm reckoned a judge in matters of life and death, and I tell you frankly