Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1895-08-03
Written for The Evening star.
JUST MISSED IT.

| The Cow Puncher HelIs How He Fail.
| ed to Get Rich.
| The cow puncher was taking 1t easy on 9
| baggage truck at the station of the western
| town, as the drummer came along the plat
| form with his sample case in his hand. His
| name, Hertborn, was on one end of 1t, ane
| this attracted the COW puncher's attention
Excuse me-" he said very politely, "but
| is that your name nethe satchel?'
Yes, why?'' and the drummer stopped
just as any well-regnlated drummer would
do under the c:rcumStances.
ANY kin to John e. Hertborn, that used
to be in the mining business out here about
seven years ago." ~,
He was a second cousin of mine. Did
you know him? l understood he had been
killed out here somewhere. but I never
learned the particulars. for we didn't know
| each other personally"
Il reckon 1 did know him." asserted the
cow puncher sliding over on the truck as
an invitation to the drummer to sit down
which was accepted, land we were partners
in a way till he was killed. He was a
/! lucky cuss and wasn't, and I kind OF
hung onto him and he didn't object, for
knowed the country and he didn't"
DO you know anything about the kill
ing?" inquired the late Mr.. HIS second cou-
sin.
I'VE never found out who done it. but
was there at the time and seen 1t all; that
is, all there was of it, which wasn't much.
Just the samee," and the COW puncher
swore viciously. sit knocked me out of a
fortune and left me right where you see me
today, and in the fix you see me, punchin'
cattle for living and not having much
fun between meals.
Tell me how it was. I am very anxious
| to know"
Good enough. Hertborn and me had
been knocking around at various Jobs
him payin' me so much week, and
he had laid by $4,000 in the Denver bank
I'd saved his life once or twice in some OF
the scraps he had got into, and he felt
grateful and when at last he was threat
| ened by greaser. he told me he guessed
he would give me a check for the full
| amount. and if anything happened to him
I could keep it,
He must have thought good deal OF
you," said the drummer.
We'll he did. but it wasn't altogether on
that account he was letting me have the
ated FROM and that he hated and he didn't
want her to have 1t. Anyway, l was to
get it, SO he said, and every now and then
1 reminded him of 1t and told him 1t was
getting more dangerous every day, for the
greaser was around looking for him, and
would shoot him or stick knife in him
sometime when he hadn't a chance to look
out for himself One night we was setting
in an Office or a kind of one, talking to a
couple of lawyers. when the check business
come up and he told them what he was
thinking about doing. They told him he'd
better do it, and told him how to fix it
legal, and he got up and went over to a
desk by winder that opened out into a
lot and begun to write the check. I was
standin' behind him watching him, for
while didn't want his money as long as he
lived, and didn't want him killed SOS I'd get
it. 1 wasn't objectin' to it in case Provi-
de1ce went back on him, leavin' me with
the Doodle. He wrote my name in the
blank after Pay to the order Of and filled
up the blank below with fifty thousand,
and was just making the J. of his first
name in the signature blank. when bang
went a gun outside, his head dropped on
the paper. some blood was spattered over
the desk and my fortune was knocked high
er than the top Of Pixies Peak on January
! morning. We broke through the windel
and went huslin' after whoever 1t was
fired the shot. but he got away. and we
never found out who done the KILN. If II
was the greaser, ne got his reward right
soon. for he was, shot in a scrap three
weeks later down in Arizona. the first we
had heard of him since Hertborn was killed
but that didn't do me any good, and the
wife got the money after ALL"
AS the COW puncher finished his story
the train whistled, and the drummer hadn't
even so much time as to take him to the
saloon across the street and pay for some
thing to drown his sorrows in.