Bennington semi-weekly banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 1894-1902, 1894-08-31
WIDOW M'COOL.

last winter Jim'S vile was the WIDOW
NlcCool She had objected pretty hard to
taking the name of MoCcol but McCool
had money, and her folks didn't have any
and wanted some. So they insisted that
sno sAuu4A Iu..I4y 4nUOooI, a4IN eLo
couldn't help herself, because she wasn't
10 yet. She wasn't McCool's wife long,
Sh,,,.s', ! o 81 Va ..yr.a,lo,,ie enough
to get In a row one night where the other
fellow was handler with his gun than he
was, and Mrs McCool became the Widow
McCool to which she had no objection
whatever The comIi4y that owned the
stage route between Buffalo and Dry Chey-
enne appointed her it's agent q Dry Chey-
enne, and it was there that Jim Kidd met
her.
'She had been there three months,
though, when Jim came along. She was
trim and snappy, dark as Mexican al
most and pretty as picture. dozen Of
the boys out there fell dead in love with
her from the word go, but she stood 'em
all off. Then Mart Huntoon, rich ranch
man, took the heaviest kind of shine to
her and wouldn't take no, so the Widow
MoCool said she would marry him and
help get away with soI&e Of his dollars.
They were going to be married on May II,
and young Jim Kidd dropped into Dry
Cheyenne on the LIST.
Jim was a quiet sort of duck, but
he was nifty. Good a fellow as ever lived
and Just the sort to catch the girls. He
sold goods out through that country for
some house in the east. He was dead gono
when he got his eyes on the Widow Mo
Cool, and the widow was stuck on him
- l., fO no a
dance at Sheffield tho next Saturday
night, and what does my bold James do
but ask the widow if she'd go and take 1t
In with him. Would sheH Well, nowl
Tho chances are that If Mart Hun
toon gets onto US, said tho widow, well
como back feet first to Dry Cheyenne, but
wo'n have some fun, you bet you'll"
$50 Saturday night Jim and the widow
took sneak and went to the dance. Shelf
field is 20 miles from Dry Cheyenne. They
hadn't been gone great while before
some Of the boys missed Jim and the Wild
ow, and they suspected something, SO of
some one goes and gives Mart the tip. He
came in just more than yooping with
dozen or SO of his men, among 'em Ed
Cook, his foreman. 1t was half an hour
or more before any one could think up
which way Jim and the widow might have
gone, and then some one happened to
think of the dance at Sheffield. Then you
ought to heard Martl You could never
write down the words he chucked around
there for the next 10 minutes. They'd
melt your pen. After he got rid Of all the
language he had handy, he called his men,
and they started for Sheffield.
GAS they rode away some one said:
" If knew where that fresh Jim Kidd
lived, I'd telegraph his folks to meet him
at the train with a coffin.
ION the way to Sheffield Mart Huntoon
says to Ed Cook and the rest:
/" This here Jim Kidd is q dangerous
and quarrelsome rufian, amt hep
1.-THE boys looked at one another and
grinned and said that Kidd was a bad
man.
I" IF he talks bad to any of you boys,
says Mart, don't let him get the drop on
you
1.-THE boys grinned some more and said
they wouldn't. When Mart's party got to
Sheffield, there was Jim and the widow,
shaking it down in great shape. When
the widow saw who the new arrivals were,
she says to Jim:
Got gum
"'Two, says Jim.
You'll need 'em before morning,
SAYS the widow Let's dance this reel.
It's dandyP
"Sure enough, Mart and his gang
hadn't been at the dance more than half
an hour when somehow Ed Cook and
some Of the rest of them got into a quarrel
with Jim Kidd. They began to close in
on jim, and he backed up against door
at one side Of the ballroom. AS the gang
edged toward him, yelling and bowling
jim whipped out his two six shooters. he
shot Ed Cook and another Of Mart's men
dead in their tracks.
Luckily for him, in the melee the lights
were put out. He would have been dead
man, though, in 10 seconds more, but the
| door opened behind him just then, and
Jim was yanked through it SO quick that
| he didn't know where he was until he
| heard the door bolted behind him and saw
the Widow McCool at his side. The spry
and plucky widow knew the house, and
she had seen the door Jim was backed up
against was the door to bedroom that
had a window on the other side. She had
! hurried from the ballroom as soon as the
| fuss began, got into the bedroom through
the window, opened the door, yanked Jim
into the bedroom and bolted the door again
before any one knew what had become Of
him.
but the mere getting Of Jim into the
bedroom wasn't going to do him or hel
any lasting good, so the widow hustled
Jim out at the window.
"'Weve got to shake the dirt Of this
shebang off our feet pretty lively now,
saws the widow.
And they did. They took the first two
horses they came to, tied in the yard, and
before Mart and his gang got head or tai
of what was going on Jim and the Widow
| McCool were streaking 1t away on the road
to Douglass. Jim had two pistol ball
wounds, one through his left forearm ant
one through the feshy part of his shout
der but they hadn't time to stop and foo
with little things like that They rode al
the rest of that night and all of the mex
day, getting to Douglas Sunday night
They were as near dead as alive, but they
stopped at Douglas only long enough t.
get something to eat. They left theil
played out horses at Douglas, hired team
and headed for Chadron, Neb.
"When Mart Huntoon and the gang ha(
hunted the house over and found no trac
of Jim or the widow, Mart made the dis
Govery that his horse and Ed Cooks hors
were gone Then he was wild.
Mart couldn't get the scent Of thei