The Washington critic., 1889-01-09
WASHINGTON CRITIC
THE HOODOO OF PINE GuLCH,
fConcluded Vrom yesterday. 4

gray come in 81 Bateses' beard, an
Docs rheumatism laid him up all win
ter. We heerd often from lIatty Cher
name), and she was doin' wcll-bein'
mighty smart, her aunt wrote. But one
day Cheyenne come in With the old hoo.
doc look on him.
"Another lead endin' in nawthin' ?"
says Marin, giyin' him doughnut
81 guess so," he ANSWERS, sorter sad.
"Ive got letter from Hatty."
You can't never make me blieve
she's gone wrong" says Marm, awful
sot
"She's writ me she's goin' ter Utah to
teach Injuns," says Cheyenne, lookin'
ugly.
oval, wal, that's the Lords work."
Marin chirps. "Missuncryizin."
'1've wrote her" Cheyenne goes on,
the viglantes expression in his eyes, that
white line around his mouth, that she
can go her ways with never no more in
terest nor care for me- an I've kept my
self short sending her money, us the
Cap'n has. wrote her; when yo've fit
Utes, bin robbed by Sioux, an had the
best pard as ever grub-staked claim
scalpcd by Apache dOvils, you won't be
a-wantin' TO put learnin inter their heads
along with the other villainy material to
Injun. We're quits charge you up
to profit and loss. So, Mrs. Cap,n, no
more of her to me.
Arter that he seldom come to our
house, but we see him to Walsen's with
u new chum of his, Whitley haired
(parted in the middle, too,) an weak
eyed apology for livn', from Chicago,
named s. Simpson Weeks. He'd bin
prospectin up mountin' all summer an
was sharin' Cheycnne's cabin now.
Weeks had real ladylike ways with him,
an we ginerally called him Manners"
fur short. He was 80 dreadful perlite
he'd allus say ITS too bad, I'm sure"
when he raked In the chips, an he in
variably apologized for four of a kind an
said he thought poker u waste of time
when he'd oughter be a improvin'
himself with some good wurk or
held his keerds cluse In his
hands, enough to wear the spots off,
peekin' at 'em with them weak eyes,
an could mix his chips 'thout takin' 'em
out the stack. SO handy at pilin 'em, l
never played when he was in the game.
lie was good deal of brag, too; used
to say he wished we could meet his father
in Chicargo, an see "our house" that
was five story, carpetod every one, an
so arter q while "as entertainin' as
Weeks pa an as fine as Weeks house"
was bywords in the Gulch. l used to
ask Cheyenne how he could stan him.
"Cause he's jest naterel borned fool,
an can't hide ii" Cheyenne would snap
me up.
In December l was comm home
from Omaha, where I'd been to see
about a smelter capitalists there was tai.
kin of putin up in the Gulch, when l
fell in with bald-headed, fattish man,
with bulgin' eyes, dressed in broadcloth
and named Weeks. 1t was Manners
pa! 1t took my breath away to meet him
in the life, an studied him keerful to
do him up to the camp. He said he was
goin' to Leadville, an played smart an
said l lived there.
think it was the day we got to Dem
yer that see female, well hidden in o
shawl an vail, kinder watchin' Weeks
pa an me as we strolled up an down
the platform. There's suthin' bout a
vailed female, ennyhow, that rouses q
mans int rest, even IL she turns out to be
coon, so KEEP watch Of her an see her
in Denver gittin' inter the Leadvile
train, an kinder got the idee she might
be one of 81 Bateses' wives from Kansas.
didn't tell Manners pa; him an me
was sorter cool arter he sed he never
gambled, but matchin' dimes was leetle
recreation of. his an he beat me out of
three dollars an harf.
| didn't see the female in Leadvile,
where we put up to hotel, an felet
come an sed Weeks was goin' to Pine
Gulch. So as the stage want ruunin' no
more, an was goin' along might show
him the way. 1twas kinder funny, both
TO- lx,in 10
but nawthin' was sed, so we set out in
the AFTERNOON, meanin' to go fifteen
miles to the Harfway House, an put up
there fur the night
1t was frosty. gray afternoon, the
road bad drifted in spots or agin on a
bleak mountain side, knee-deep III mud
ev'ry erik was roarin torrent, an some
bridges was washed out, maxim us hav
to ford the streams, which were icy, |
tell you. / can't rightly tell Jest when N
1t were fust see footprint like that one
Cruesoe saw, meanin' Friday (fur joke
now he might have been Que of the
Weekses of Chicago, but this was small
one, an it made me feel queer to think
1t might be females that very vailed
one. Good land, | thought, what kin
there be about that onery Bates to bring
woman way over this trail. AS ful
allmOny, Ell ne SDOrJ on tnat Sendln
law papers would done as we'll an bet
Ter nor comm. Then / took note them
footprints was right along on our road
but never a word / said to Manners pa
who was wrapped upin himself complete
"Lor," says he, chow them mountins
do expand the soulW He fetched deer
breath an quoted hymn. Somehow
began wishing he'd fall down precipice
an roll the dignity outer him; Of Chey
enne had ben along he'd would have
I'm sure, an there air times when Q
hoodoo does good work, take it, ful
they must be made fur some reasons, like
flies. Then the old man startled me by
arskin' eff l knowed James Wade
"Some," l answers, cautious.
II hope he amt disrespectful pus
son, says he, "as would hurt Simpsons
morels."
"He wun't," says, short, ''fur the
camp lows Manners amt got none
Without emmy fooln'," went on, fun
though had no use fur him, didn'
want him to get murdered in my com
pany, "you wanter be keerlul of showin'
money to the Halfway House. There's
hard gang there, It's only fugertives
from iestice as would stay showed up Oh
that summit in winter"
Arter supper / set down by the fire to
smoke, seein' Oily interducin' them three
toughs to game of matchin', that recre
alton of his, an | didn't worrit abou
him, fur l cal'lated he was the bigges