The Houma courier. (Houma, La.) 1878-1939, 1897-08-14

DOC PIPPIN.
BY cY wARMAN.


Doc climbing rOs a cloddY field be-
hind a harrow, and he hailed me. When
he came out he hung his chin over
ahe top Of the fence and said: spm
goin' west"
@When2"
Tonight"
mol"
Yes. win you jine mel"
What's it cost2" / asked.
"Forty-nine dollars second class from
st. Louis to Denver
Have you got the money!"
Doc shook his head.
did you ever see that much money ~
well. not at one look, but I've got
t all figured out"
How much have you got?"
Haven't got any. but 1 got a job at
Whiticer's stable in Carr street, an If
you go I'll see hat you never want.
we can sleep in the haymOw and board
around"
Howl ve get 70 St. Louis /
asked
"Ride when we're tired of walkin' am
walk when we can't ride" was his re-
ply.
The thought of getting up at morn
ing and not knowing where I was go
Ing to sleep It night frightened me,
and l told Doc 50, and we parted.
A few years later, when the west
bound train stopped at a little bleak
and dreary mountain town where 1,
having gone west, had elected to drop
anchor, 1 looked out from the car win
dow and saw Doc sitting close up to
the croQper of an old sorrel horse that
was hitched to an express wagon.
/ went over to him at once, for I was
lonesome. A mountain town is not a
thing that one Is apt to love at first
sight. Desolate! That is better than
four columns of agate to describe the
place. The dry March winds came out
of the canyon and swept the sands of
the mesa up into eddies and swished
and swirled in around your collar and
cut your face. The sunlight was so
dazzling that it bewildered and seemed
unreal, and. the cold winds were con-
stantly c~ontradicting its warmth.
fare you homesick, DOc2' I asked,
ms / rode uptown with him, for he was
there to haul people and their baggage
up to the hotel.
Mop" he said. 'It's the dry wind
it's busted my lip so that / look like
I'm goin, to cry when I'm tryin' to
laugh. I'm goin' back home this fall,''
he added, after a pause, ito get my
m~oney-rm 81 now, but I'm comm
back out here-this country is all
right"
Doc, who had earned his title by doc
toring his uncle's horses, had inherited
= little fortune Of $500, and when the
summer had come and gone he went
back home in a Pullman car, for he had
saved $50 out of his salary of $50 and
board every month.
Five years later, in the dawning of
the morning, as / was climbing out of
an upper berth at another mountain
town, a man caught hold Of my coat
tail, and / found that the imam under
my bed" was Doc Pippin. He said he
was living in Denver; so was /, and
He came often, and told the best stories
/ had ever heard. He was thin and
pale, and I noticed that he coughed
and pounded his left lung when he
did so. Those stories were not told to
me for publication, but 1 know he will
not care, for he is careless now.
Doc went to Chicago after receiving
his money and became acquainted with
q w~ell-known detective. L think he said
it was Billy Pinkerton. 1t was like the
Pinkertons to detect in this almost
beardless boy a remarkably intelligent
person.
Pippin got an offer of employment,
he accepted it and was sent at once to
a small town in Illinois to find out a
band Of thieves who were stealing hogs
and robbing shops.
IF Doc had tried he could never have
dressed well. Even clothes that were
made for him didn't fit, and he wore
his hat crosswise, like the leading man
at a French funeral. His appearance
upon this occasion was in his favor, and
he was not long in forming the &C
q~uaintance of the toughest lot of loaf
ers in the town. They liked Doc, as
everyone did who knew him, but it was
q long time before they would trust
him. Docs money gave out, andhe tried
to borrow, and the gang gave him the
laugh. HGit out an turn a trick
work. said one Of the men.
what can I do7 Show me and then
watch me" said Doc.
ASee hat jay ridin' put o. town? -
said the tough, nodding down the road
where a lone horseman was going away
with the sunset at his back.
eyes"
well, he's goin' out to his place in
the country-goes every Sat'day night
an comes back Mondhy-hold i'm up"
Doc knew the man. as he knew near
" every man in the place. by the de-
scription given him at Chicago. and by
the middle Of the following week this
wealthy citizen had been notified from
headquarters that he would be held up
On the next Saturday night. Doc was
1T his post, and as the lone horseman
came down the road the highwayman
stepped out from the shadows of a jack
and covered his man.
That night the gang drank up the
best mart of the $2s.50 and voted Doc ga
dead game TOUGHER"