The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1884-01-10

might be pretty stiff on bunko, but they
were little behind the times on draw
poker. In my country" F" he explained,
1.-TWO deuces and a bowie will open a
jack pot every timen
Mr.. Ashley passed several davs In
quiet and seclusion. A full week went
by before he drifted out again with his
companion of the compressed lips.
The next day after that he drew round
$1,000 from the safe, and seemed an
noyed when the clerk smiled broad
and knowing smile. "No game ever
phaZed me. !" said Mr.. Ashley, in dog
ged way, land man who can hold up
his end with cowboys isn't going to be
bested by any broadcloth brigade that
was ever hatched." There was a lull
of eight or ten days in the proceedings,
and then Mr.. Ashley drew another
$1,000. A couple of days later he drew
$3.50 more. That afternoon he went
for drive. with his gentlemanly COM
panion. His face had been suffused
with sadness all the morning. but it
was noticed that he seemed somewhat
brighter on his return from the drive.
That evening Hungry Joe and two of
his well known Broadway companions
spent several hours in earnest CONVEX
sation with Mr.. Ashley. That gentle
man S weak eyes made it necessary for
him to wear his broad hat well down
over his forehead When the three
young men went away the merest
shadow of a smile played about the
mouth of the Western man. From the
table at which they sat the three young
fellows went straight to the telegraph
office, where they sent the, following
dispatch: +s..ssa nrs9-
Postmaster, Abilene, Kan:
Do you know Benjamin Ashley, cattle
ralser2 Telegraph full particulars, my ex-
r. DICKSON, Brewer House. New York.
The reply was evidently in all re-
spects satisfactory, and within two
days Mr.. Ashley received in his rooms
at the hotel a visit from the three conf
dence operators and lawyer, who is
more or less celebrated in this city.
The head porter of the hotel was called
up into the room after the visitors had
been there an hour or longer, and was
requested to append his signature to a
certain document in the capacity of
witness to the signing thereof This
done, and the papers signed by Mr..
Ashley, q large sum of money was paid
over by the gentleman with the thin
lips and the porter retired with a FIVE
dollar bill out of the pile. The visit
ors slowly withdrew from the hotel and
Mr. Ashley deposited that night the
sum of $l4,000. cold cash in the office
of the hotel. Two days afterward he
took passage on Guion steamer for
Liverpool, having explained to the ho-
tel clerk that he had sold half-interest
in his Kansas cattle ranch to his
friends, and that Hungry Joe, as he
was called, had expressed wish to re-
tire from city life. Mr. Ashley was
''seen Off by his enthusiastic New
York acquaintances after the most ap-
proved style of the art. They toasted
him right royalty in 'yellow LABEL"
presented him with a big basket of
flowers with the word Farewell in
large blue letters across the center, and
otherwise marked his departure with eV-
licences of tender regard
Mr.. Ashley had been gone from the
fashionable Broadway hotel precisely
eleven days, when tall man came in
from a carriage that was loaded with
trunks and steamer chairs and other ap-
pliances of ocean travel. He esigned HIM
self on the register, BENJAMIN Ashley,
Londen.J'9. The clerk looked up hrr-
riedly as if to apologize for not recog-
nizing his guest, then looked surprised,
muttered a hasty word or two, and as
signed the stranger o room, all in
confused and preoccupied way. This
was apparently another Benjamin Ash
ley. He was tall and slender, and well
dressed, and pale. But he spoke with
slightly Americanized English accent,
not unlike that of the other Benjamin
Ashley. The clerk was pretty well puz-
zled, and that night he took good care
TO have the strangers full name and
address inserted in the list of arrivals
published daily in a periodical devoted
to that purpose and carefully read by
the confidence fraternity. The clerk
went on duty early the next day, and as
he had fully expected, one of the first
callers was the thin-lipped young man,
Mr.. Ashley's room. Word came back
that Mr.. Ashley would see the gentle
man in the drawing-room, and thither
the clerk followed after a moment.
Hungry Joe was sitting in large arm
chair when the tall man from London
came into the apartment. The New
Yorker merely bestowed passing
glance on Mr.. Ashley and looked away.
The Englishman, however, seeing no
one else excepting the clerk, advanced
courteous1y and said:
did you wish to see meP am Mr..
Ashley"
''EhP'' queried Hungry Joe, with
startled look. You're not Mr.. Benia-
min Ashley?"
PRECISELY"
'sNot of Kansas2''
"Yes, of Abilene, Kan. How can
serve you?"
The thin lips of the confidence man
were rather white by this time. and
they were more firmly compressed than
ever. He regarded the tall English
men in dazed fashion for a few mo-
ments. Then he asked
t'Do you own a large cattle ranch
thirty-five miles south of Albilenep'
II believe | do. Why do you askP"
t'Been to Europe to have your ewes