The Ohio Democrat. (Logan, O. [Ohio]) 1886-1906, 1894-08-11


discovery in its way, for otherwise
his strayed horses near the canyon
and ended among charred sticks him
self. Very likely the Indians were far
away by this time, but he returned to
Twenty Mile with the man tied to his
saddle and his pony nervously snort
ing And now the day was done, and
the man lay in the earth, and they
had even built fence round him, for
the hole was pretty shallow, and
coyotes have a way of smelling this
sort of thing a long way off when they
are hungry. and the man was not in a
coffin. They were always short of cof-
hns in Arizona.
Day was done at Twenty Mile, and
the customary activity prevailed in
side that hat-roofed cube of mud.
Sounds of singing, shooting, dancin &
and Mexican tunes on the concertina
came out of the windows hand in
hand. to widen and die among the
hills. Timber, pretty boy, who might
be nineteen, was dancing energetical-
ly, while grave old gentleman, with
tobacco running down his beard,
pointed pistol at the boys heels, and
shot a hole in the earth now and then
to show that the weapon was real
ly loaded. Everybody was quite
used to all this-eXcepting the boy.
He was an eastern new conner, passing
his first evening at place of enter
tainment.
On this particular evening they had
Il tenderfoot. The boy, being new in
Arizona, still trusted his neighbor.
Such ople turned up occasionally.
This one had paid for everybody's
drink several times, because he felt
friendly, and never noticed that no.
body ever paid for his. They had
played cards with him. stolen his
spurs, and now they were making him
dance 1t was an ancient pastime; yet
two or three were glad to stand round
and watch it, because it was some
time since they had been to the opera.
Now the tcnderfoot had misunder-
stood these friends at the beginning,
supposing hi mself to be among good
fellows, and they therefore naturally
set him down as a fool But even
while dancing you may learn much,
and suddenly. The boy, besides being
timber, had good tough black hair,
and it was not in fear, but with cold
blue eye, that he looked at the old
gentleman. The trouble had been
that his own revolver had somehow
hitched, SO he could not pull it from
the holster at the necessary moment.
Tried to draw on me, did yer?" said
the old gentleman. step higher.
Step, now, or I'll crack open yer
kneepans, yer robins egg"
Think he', having bad time re-
marked Ephraim. wonder how he'd
like TO have been that man the Injuns
had sport with?'
Weren't his ear funny?" said one
who had helped bury the man.
''Ear?" said Ephraim. You boys
ought to have been along when | found
him, and seen the way they'd fixed NJ
his mouth" Ephraim explained the
details simply. and the listeners
shivered. But Ephraim was "a humor
list. Wonder how it feels he con
tinued, "to have
Here the boy sickened at his com
ments and the loud laughter Yet {
few hours earlier these same half
drunken testers had laid the man te
rest with decent humanity. The boy
was taking his first dose of Arizona
by no means everybody was looking
at his jig. They had seen tcnderfee,
so often. There was Mexican gam,
of cards: there was the concertina
and over in the corner sat Specimen
Jones, with his back to the company
singing to himself. Nothing had beer
said or done that entertained him il
the least. He had seen everything
quite often.
''Iiigheri skip higher, You elegan
calf" remarked the old gentleman t.
the tcnderfoot 'Iiigh-yer.' and IN
v,l..idl,, 6rad q fourth Sh,t th,t ..ro M,