The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1894-05-31

give him about as much chance as
yellow dog would have fighting
troop Of cavalry. An ex-ranger namet
Jack Hosford was 10 have the frs
crack at him, because he and Ros
had row over the smiles Of MeXi
can donna. The fingers Of the ranger
left hand remained as souvenirs Of tn
occasion. Women had caused man,
rows for Ross. They were attracte,
by his tall, stalwart figure and fiGel,
cut face, and, as matter of course
trouble followed.
One evening Ross was behind tht
bar Of his gambling house in San An
tonic chatting with friends when hal
a dozen Of the rangers friends came
n and scattered about the room. Five
minutes later HosfOrd came In uuOb
/ served. Suddenly he stepped from
! behind a screen at the door, and with
/ out a word of warning, fred his SIN
4 shooter over the bar point blank at
/ Ross BY a marvellous scratch he
4 missed, though the two men were three
/ feet apart. Before he could fire again
Ross had snatched two guns from the
! sink beneath the bar and set them go
ing IL two directiens. In a fash be
had read the plot to assassinate him.
The ranger fell back dead at the first
shot, and then his guns were snorting
fire aud smoke at his friends, who We're
shooting from all points Of the com
pass at the man behind the bar When
the clouds of battle were cleared five
men were lying dead on the floor and
Ross was sitting in chair tying a
handkerchief around a bleeding arm.
1t IS small wonder that his word was
law afterwards
The friendship between Ross and
Little" Edgar was formed under en-
cumstances similar to this adventure.
Edward was playing bank in Ross
house one evening. when four drunken
Mexican vaquerOs insisted on inter
ruptlng the game by stealing Edgar's
checks. They protested when order
cd out by Ross, and when Edgar in
timated that the fight was his own
they drew their knives and started
for him. Ross was knocked down and
would doubtless have been killed if
Edgar had not laid out his Mexican
assailants in one, two. three order.
The real Western gun fighter. a
man, for instance, like Bat Masterson
Of Colorado, George Thompson of
Billings, Mont, or Johnny McMurray
OF Butte, always avoids discussing his
battles. He always claims that he
fought in self-protection, and in most
cases he is right. Fights are forced
upon him by aspirants for his distinc-
ton. Ross and little Edgar per
sistently refused TO recite their rec
ords. People at Fort Benton were
then too busy to talk much about their
neighbors and gun fights We're almost
as common as dog fights, SO little was
known about Ross and Edgar beyond
the fact that they were neryy, de5per-
ate men. 1t turned out that neither
knew much about the past life Of the
other
Ross and Little" Edgar paid a
round sum for the privilege of run
ming the only faro game in the hotel.
There they caught the best class of
customers, because they were known
to be dead square. 1t was then that
the incidents of the liveliest day in
the brief but lurid history Of Fort
Benton began early one morning IN a
very common way. The first row
started over dispute between Ross
and Edgar on one side and the MeXi-
can holt breed, Manuel, on the other.
As is usual, two shifts Of dealers and
outlooks We're employed to run the
faro game, each shift lasting six hours,
and the game never closing. Ross
| and Edgar owned the bank and
worked together. Manuel and Rogers
or Aces Up" were hired to deal and
watch. Every other week they had
what is known as the dog watch, last
ing from 4 a. III. until.
Now faro bankers find no difficulty
in getting expert dealers, but it is not
SO easy to get honest dealers Ross
and Edgar had experienced this diff
Guilty After frequent consultations
/ they decided that Manuel and aces
/ Up" were pinchiug out money When
he finished his watch one morning the
Mexican was told that his services
would no longer be required. When
| he asked the reason in a jargon of
broken Spanish and English. he was
told very plainly that he had been
stealing. 4Ianuel's shifty black eyes
danced with anger, and he muttered
a few oaths. He was too smart to start
fight with the proprietors, but when
told that watch had been set on him,
he sent vicious glance toward Rogers,
who was as yet ignorant of his dis
charge. A new dealer and look ont
dropped INTO the seats, and the game
went on with a passing remark from
Ross to Edgar that the Mexican