The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1893-04-23
A CHANCE SHOT.
The Strengthening Man Relates n West
crn story.


crn story.
The strengthening man sat in one
corner of the smoker and hadn't much
to say while the drummer and the west
ern real estate man were tcliias their
stories lie reused, however. after a
peculiarly peculiar one by the drum.
mer.
THAT reminds me- he said. .'of scmc,
thing that happened once in n1u-
ing town IN the Rockies. during Tire
good old times when everything WAS
new ont there. Like every mushroom
municipality, we had among us gam
blers and greenies, toughs ard tender
feet. One OF these tcnde.feet was the
most cowardly fellow. in some ways, |
ever sae. and how he had ever come
IL such place couldn't IN
derstand He was afraid of ever
+ BODY. and boy could hulldosc
him. but he was bright-minded.
with a fine turn for business, and
was honest. pistol was Il horror 20
him. and he wouldn't take a drink of
whisky under any circumstances, which.
by the way. required considerable cour
afterwarl turned ont. for one dav he
refused to drink with the uGlicst, most
dangerous man we had. and i row en-
sued The tough whipped out pistol
and would have killed the fellow, bat
some ono caught his arm, and the other
man went down on his knees and beg
ged for his life. II was no good. how
ever: the tough was drunk and was
determined To kill him, and To prevent
an open murder. some one suggested
that they fight ii out in the street, and
revolver was nut into the hands OF
the tenderfoot II c didn't know how
to handle the gun ut all. and while one
man showed him what 70 do, four or
five more held the tough. Then
they were put at ten PAGES,
and more abject sacred specimen I
never saw than that tenderfoot. He
could hardly stand up and his pistol
wobbled about as If it swung To
string. Tho tough enjoyed il more
than anybody else for he felt sure Of
his victim After he had watched the
shiveriug wretch Il moment he pulled
up his gun, and a the same time the
tenderfoot pulled his up and tried to
aim it. Then. bang went the tough's
gun and almost simultaneously fol-
lowed the report of the tenderfoo;'s
The tough dropped like shot OK, and
the tendcrfoot threw up his right hand
and howled with pain and fear. We
rushed up and found the tough dead.
with bullet through his heart, and
the tenderfoot with his fingers and
hand bruised and bleeding, but not
seriously injured. The bullet from the
toughs pistol had struck the trigger of
the tenderfoot's and discharged il with
fatal rcsult."o
The strengthening man had ap-
parently no more to say and his lis
teners looked at each other question.
ingly.
The drummer coughcd suspiciousIy
MAY | ask" he said. chow ii hap
pened that the tough's bullet didn't
take the tenderfoot's finger off before
it reached the trigger of his pistol?''
simple enough. replied the strange
looking man frankly: The didn't have
his finger on the trigger; ne had it on
the trigger guard and he would have
been pulling on it vet, to make the gun
go off If luck hadn't been against the
tough"
The strengthening man rclapsed
into his former silence and nobody had
the cheek to try to tell any more stories.
Detroit Free Press.