Waterbury evening Democrat., 1888-07-11

LII tI0 CaAlIU.
 He won't know I'm a slouch, ," he added, half bitterly. "I am not very widely noted. ."
 No dogs, so common on the average claim, rushed to meet him, with suspicious growls and wagless tails. No little army of white headed children ran bashfully to hide at the approach of the stranger.
 Deserted, looks like" the ''slouch" told himself. "Well, so much the better for me. Loneliness and I will get along right well together, and 'slouch" without company is just as good as anybody else!"
 The swift falling twilight had filled with darkness the little room that the half open door revealed. The ''slouch" knocked, for manners sake, and gave great start as a low moan replied. The moan was repeated, and, after calling questioningly several times, he entered.
 \ match, hurriedly lighted, revealed the only occupant of the stshack, gaunt, feebly tossing man, who. stretched on the rude bed, seemed hardly conscious of the intruder's presence
 Whats the matter, pardner7' the "slouch" asked, kindly.
 The other, who seemed to be conscious only in a glimmering fashion, strove feebly to answer, and as the ''slouch" bent close to him thero came the one word: "Water!" A cooling draught from the we'll near at hand seemed to revive the sick man, and as the ''slouch" bent above him again he whis pcred hoa~sely:
 Thank yc, pardner. Gt Smallpox" [
 Out into the darkness the 'slouch" fled as if pursued by demon When he paused he was almost to the wire fence that surrounded the claim. He took off his battered hat and looked up at tue stars twinkling into sight! one after another. The deadly danger of tho plague was only one more link to his chain of misfortunes. Perhaps if he lied he could escape it. The man in the cabin, if left alone, would die of | neglect, if not of the plague A 'SlouChS. | could help him to battle >. h death just as | well as the most fortH0"ie ana influential | citizen of Coyote City The sufferer in the | ,Shanty had no claim on ;linl, but | Then he replaced the battered hat, and, l turning about in the darInesS, strode toward, the open door, from which came a long, | gleaming shaft of light from the candle he 1 had lit. Presently the door was shut, and the "slouch' and the sufferer were alone with l the plague.
 It was just such another day as the one | upon which, two weeks before the ''SlOuch" left Coyote City, that Eiunt, pale man, weary with his long tramp from the isolated claim near the lone mounl, stepped just be- 1 yond the end of the one street of Coyote and shouted hoarsely to lad: Tell the big gun in tA2 town to come yarm
 The lad very proper. >Nu.ho Col. Bender | son as thc individual .3N~. hy of the 1 title of "blg gum" ..,.,. gentleman rose from table in tho Ju%:ho saloon, and Pierce Fanshaw and A l,.:,.r Lemon followed | him.
 'IIalt, tharm cried .., stranger, when they had gotten within I.'h,ured yards of l him.
 News flies fast in q b.. ?>l, settlement, and quite squad of curious o0-" s5roled up and joined the colonel and hiS friends The colonel did not heel the command, but continued to advance
 Halt, thar" repe@,>.l tho stranger "Smallpox! You'll halt now, reckon!" he added, grimly.
 Not only did Col B>, ,2rsou Ea!t, but he turned so quickly that h, nearly fell on his face, and started to hur-y away. Halt, thar!' was the command
 \ huge revolver gleall";l in the hand of the stranger, and the colonel stopped.
 What does this mean, sr!" he demanded rather faintly "Who are your
 Names Ike Masters" !h2 stranger shouted in reply. "Know Wiliian Hatfeld?" :. 'Never hecred uv hin!' Col. Henderson answered positively.
 Hatfield was the 's,DuchS' name," said Pierce FanShaw.
 "Never knowed it. Wall"-to the stranger -''what uv himf
 "Nuthn," answered Ilze Masters. He's dead, that's all. Don't reckon any uv you'll keer none, beins you run him out; but jest 1 want to say that the you called the
 slouch' died hero!'
 The group about the colonel listened in awed silence as the stranger shouted the story of the ''slouch's" hcroism and death
 He sent you some word," Ike Masters added, as he closed the recital Said fer me to say to you that the last effort nv the 'slouch' want failure, but that fer once he 'complished what he set out to do. What he set out to do was to save the life uv Ike Mas ters,~which Ike Masters is me-"
 The colonel, usually ready tongued, was silent
 An jest want to say furder," shouted { the gaunt stranger, "that I h'ain't overly 1 strong yit, but if the cuss, or any two uv the cusses what boSsed the runnin' out uv the
 'slouch' will step out from the crowd, me and ole Betsy participating his huge revolver
 twill give 'em all the satisfaction they want case they feel insulted when I say that ever ! man connected with the runnin' out uv Will
 jam Hatfield is liar an hoss thief"
 These epithsts may not have been appro
 priate to the occasion, but they were of the
 Klnu that on Ine as Eht
 deadliest insults.
 An jest want to add, ," went on Ike Mas , ters, that my claim is on the southwes
 quarter nv Section Three an kin allurs bt ii found thar or tharabouts case anybody , wants to take this var matter up!' , And turning ho strode across the prairie , The crowd that soon gathered in the Jumbo , saloon was less noisy than usual; they wanted to hear what Col. Henderson would say, bu that gentleman did not seem inclined t. ! l talk.
 ''Mebby I made a mistake" was all h. said.
 y, Few of us would do as the 'Slouch' did,
 said Pierce Fanshaw. II, for one, would no , die for anybody but myself" ''There is verse in scripture"- began 3 Mr. Arthur Lemon, of Boston. , And with which it will doubtless surpris you to learn that I am passably familiar, l interrupted Pierce Fanshaw. "'And greate ' love hath no man than this, that a man la, f down his life for his friends, ,'"-Frank Les