The Brookhaven leader. [volume] (Brookhaven, Miss.) 1883-1891, 1883-09-06

"hSiC "d0s anu Sly = llC.
That's mighty pretty. Paint the
other side, now'
"'Wait till get done this side, will
you, my friend?' saws |, making the
outline of big i in white paint.
"'Just scratch that out, if you please
My name don begin with an l..
He said that mighty soft; but when
looked at him | had to look into the
muzzle of a big seven-shooter navy.
1--WE had plenty of trouble with men
who didn't want their barns and fences
painted up with signs; but that fellow
made more fuss over his little shanty
than ever | saw before or since. He
said he was paying forty dollars a
month rent for that place U wouldn't
give him forty cents for the whole
thing), and he made me paint all four
sides, from top to bottom, with good
black paint, while the whole town stood
around and criticised the way slung o
brush.
"They let me 90 after / got that
shanty painted; but the sheriff of the
town walked piece with me, and told
me I'd better get. He said the men
could stand little swearing, and lit
tie shooting and little gambling; but
when it come to omaking sign-boards of
the houses, he was afraid lawlessnesS
was going>too far, and he wouldn't an
swer for the consequences if | stayed
in town.
81 was determined that | would not
go out of that Tombstone district with
out leaving my mark, anyhow. SO |
just bunked on the hillside that night,
and in the morning | made Decline
for the MILESTONE Mountains, which
are in sight of the city, and after lit
tie skirmishing around found canyon
with precipice on one size Cf ( az
clean straight up and down as knife.
"When looked over the edge could
see the water in the little creek down
below dancing and singing along
through the boulders. 1t wasn't such a
tarnation piece down there-only two
or three hundred feet-but it was lit
tie further than | cared to jump.
q had a coil of silk rope among my
tools, and after fastening one end to a
cottonwood tree | swung the other end,
with loop in it for a seat, overheard,
and climbed down it hand under hand.
"What did do with my paint-bucket
anu DIuSHs DuU llt VI uSIl III tllc
bucket and carried the bucket-handle
in my mouth. Oh, / assure you this
kind of thing was common with me.
The next time you 60 among the mount
aims, if you will examine the painted
rocks pretty closely, you will find that
my way is really the only way to get at
most of them.
"Give me good silk rope-silk be-
cause very small silk rope will carry
man, and a painter don't like to lug a
heavy rope around with him-and I'll
paint your name on the steepest preci-
pice that ever was.
when I'm sitting down my brush
has got a seven-foot swing, and | set out
to paint the words Loves Lung LOz-
enges' in seven-foot letters, | didn't
care if it took me week, wasn't going
to be bluffed by them TOmbstoners.
"Well, sir, | was brushing away and
singing to myself like a mocking-bird
when IA stone came down and lit fair in
the paint-pot, splashing paint all over
my sign. looked up madder' n hOr-
net, and there | see two dirty Apache
heads grinning at me.
II didn't say anything; but the sight
of them took the life out of me so that
dropped my brush and | could hear it
bounding along from rock to rock until
finally it struck bottom. | swear it
seemed to me ten minutes from the
time that brush left my hand until it
struck the ground. Every time it
bounced from one rock to another |
seemed to say to myself: You'll strike
there, and there, and there
81 knew the Indians were Apaches
the minute | saw their heads, and
knew, too, that the Apache is the blood
thirstiest animal on earth.
"They grnned at me, with their
heads stuck over the precipice, and
then one of them swung out his right
arm and began making passes at the
taut rope with butcher knife in his
hand. You won't find them fellers car
rying tomahawks any more; they carry
guns and knives instead.
az watched that knife flying around
up there with its sharp edge always
turned toward the rope. until it made
me sick, and looked down for relief.
Below me there was nothing but little
mesquit bush growing out of the preci-
pice about half way down, and under
that boulders.
"Suddenly | thought of something,
and, whipping my whisky flask out of
my breast pocket, held it up toward
them. They stopped grinning, the
knife stopped wheeling around, and
saw in minute that they were two
thirsty Indians, and that had a chance
yet. But, like a blamed fool, was too
sure, and didn't take enough care of the
bottle, and the first thing | knew it
slipped from my hand and smashed to
flinders on the rocks below.
1.-The Indians gave one howl, and
then zip went the knife across the rope,
and l followed the whisky bottle.
"Did l get killed? Well, not hardly.
You remember that mesquit bush?
Well, the end of the rope managed to
get wrapped around that bush in the
fall, and it brought me up so sudden
that the shock broke out four of my
front teeth"
But you were still hundred feet
above ground, and your rope only fifty
feet long.
ITO be sure; but everything was plain
sailing now. just Skinned up the rope
to the bush, got the rope out of the
snarl, and unraveled it so as to make
two ropes, only half as thick each as the
other was. SeeP The rope was plenty
strong enough to bear me, thin as it
was, and down l came like creased
lightning, and then footed it back to