Dodge City times. [volume] (Dodge City, Kan.) 1876-1892, 1878-01-19


had been drinking hard-fiery Bour-
bon, you bet,-for about week, when
early one morning as l lay. in my ragged
bit of tent, woke up sudden-like to a
roaring noise like thunder; then there
came whirl and rush, and l was
swimming for life, half choked with the
water that had carried me off. Now it
was hitting my head, playful like, agen
the hardest corners of the rock it could
find in the Gulch; then it was hitting
me in the back, or pounding me in the
front, with trunks of trees swept down
from the mountains, for something had
bust-a lake, or something high up
and in about wink the hull settlement
in Yaller Gulch was swept away.
WALL" l says, getting hold of a
branch, and drawing myself out, ''some
on 'em wanted a good wash, and this'll
give it 'em;" for you see water had
been skeerce lately, and what there was
had all been used for cleaning the gold.
sot on a bit O. rock, wringing that
water out o. my hair-leastwise, no; it
was some one else like who sot there,
chaps l knowed, you see; and there was
the water rushing down so or 40 feet
deep, with every thing swept before it
mules, and tents, and shanties, and
stores, and dead bodies by the dozen.
Unlucky for them" l says; and Just
then 1 hears a wild sorter shrek, and,
looking down, l see chap half-swim-
ming, half-swept along by the torrent.
trying hard to get at a tree that stood
t'Other side.
"Why, it's you, is it, Hez?'' l says to
myself, as l looked at his wild eyes and
strained face, on which the sun shone
full. Z" You're a gone coon, Hez, lad
SO you may just as well fold yer arms,
say amen, and 90 down like man. How
l could pot you now, lad, if I'd got
shooting-iron; put you out o. yer misery
like. You'll drown, lad"
He made a dash, and tried for
branch hanging down, but missed it
and got swept against the rocks, where
he showed his arm between two big bits
but the water gave him wrench, the
bone went crack, and asI sat still there
/ see him swept down lower and lower
till he clutched at bush with his left
hand, and hung on like grim death to a
dead niger.
" Sarve you right" l says, coolly.
/" Why shouldn't you die like the rest?
If I'd had any go in me l should have
plugged you long ago."
"HollOa?" l cried then, giving a
start. cit ain't-'tis-tarnation! it
can't bel" .,...
R,t - xrac 1#H.r...
There, ON t'other side, fifty yards
lower down, was bit of shelf of earth
that kept crumbling away as the water
washed it, was Jael, kneeling down
with her young 'un; and, as looked,
seemed to give my heart
jigg, just as if some coon had pulled a
string. s-1u rt0ts tvi5
SWELL, he's bout gone," says;
Sc and they can't hold bout three min
utes; then they'll all drown together,
and she can take old Hez his last baby
10 nuss, cuss EN-! I'm safe enough.
What What, 81 # got to DO with me' shan't
1 took out my wet cake of ',bacca, and |
off bit, shoyed il in my cheek, |
shut my knife with a click, and sot thar
~atehih' of Sem father, and mother,
and BARN. " ''. ''dHf'i'a''o '''i.r-
.r"You've been happy, you have" l
says, out loud; not as they could hear
i, for the noise Of the waters snow
vou'll be sorry for other people. Drown,
iarn yer! stock, and lock, and barrel;
I'm safe.r a=.'i1 llav %, 81 sAAi' 90
just then, as I sot and chawed, tell
Hg myself asa chap would be mad to
ny and save his friends out of such a
lOod, let alone his enemies, darn me!
f Jael didn't put that there little squeal-
,r's hands together, and hold them up
IS if she was making it say its prayers
\ born fool!--when that thar string
'eemed to be pulled, inside me like, agin
ny heart; and,l l couldn't help it, l
umped up. "a,
e Say, Dab" says to myself, ''don't