Evening star., 1898-02-12

averaging less than two months Of service
each. declaring that the pace was too
warm to make It worth their while
Mennt what He said.
But we found out that Noble meant
what he said three nights after he took the
| job Of after-dark marshal. On that night
Gus dropped in at Tim Logan's dance tent
to have a look around. There was nothing
In particular going on there-oniy a dozen
| couples or so gyrating around on the hard
packed clay floor to the music of an ac-
Gordon Noble stood in a corner talking
to Logan for while, and then started TO
GO out the door OF the tent. As he did so
re almost bumped into another man just
coming in. The other man was a miner
named Lou PTinde-not a bad man when
sober. but very evil when drunk. He hap
pere'! to be drunk on this occasion. and he
a'S) fai both of his guns in his hands. Ile
ess3yec to pass around Noble to get into
the doof CT the tent, but Noble blocked the
way and permitted a distance of just about
one foct tc separate him from Prindle.
Whero you going. Lou? he asked the
man. with his guns all ready for business.
"Prindle giared at the night marshal
drunkenly.
Well said he. while can't see that
that's any o. your id business I'm
a-goin inside yere to shoot up that gal in
the !eilar skirt a whole lot fur givin' me
tn. douEie cross an fur
Oh, L wouldn't. put in Noble. mildly
stu standing a foot away from the man
with tic guns.
Vines a-runnin' this yere joint? yelled
Prindle. getting mad because Noble was
| blocking his way in. Git out o. my way OF
ril-'
We'll, Gus always did have a great way
| of breaking in on men before they had a
/ chance to finish saying what they intended
| TO DO 10 him. He saw that Prindle's hands
Were tightening on his guns as he spoke
ard his left hand shot out like a caeapult
and landed like piston rod on the danger
Gus mans wind. This doubled Prindle up
and brought his head forward. and when
| his head came forward Noble got him clean
on the point of the jaw with his right
Prind!e was down and out before he had
time to think what was happening to him.
and his guns were lying on the sod. Noble
| picked the guns up and stuffed them into
| his pockets and called a couple of men out
| of the dance tent to carry Prinde to the
| caiaboose.
Fists vs.. Guns.
After this happened some of us came
| to the conclusion that there might be
something in Mobiles queer policy of fist
persuasfcn, after all. but Ii was not until
! he mad turned the trick repeatedly and put
| out number of the most savage and thor
oughly heeled bad men that ever announced
| or Butte's main streets that they dined
| daily on picked coyotes feet that he
succeeded in convincing the entire com
munity that a man who has a complete
understanding of how to handle his mtts
| has just as good an end of most arguments
as the man with the gun or the knife
Noble knew how to use his hands il anv
man out in that country did. He'd never
| let on to any of Us where he'd picked up
his science at boxing, but 1 guess we were
not far wrong In figuring IL that he had
been in the ring few times when he was
a younger man. He was a short man, not
more than five feet six in height, but ne
was very bread across the shoulders, with
an arm-reach that was almost baooonish,
siGewy as an Indian and quick as n cat.
and his huge chest and arms were SO knot
ted that, stripped, he looked almost muscle
| bound, although he wasn't. He could strike
a terrible blow. rampageous miner.
strapping giant over six feet tall. walked
up to Noble one night I'm the Angel Ga
briel saloon and deliberately spat in his
| he didn't know the night marshal who
| of course wore no uniform. The miner did
this thing out of pure devilishness, because
| he wanted to be bad, and because Noble
being quiet and MISUNDERSTANDING, he fig
ured that he could do it with impunity.
| Noble thrust his right leg back, planted
| his feet firmly on the floor. gave a daz-
ziing swift circular swing with his long
right arm and then sent the rock-hard fist
at the end of it into the middle of the
| giants chest. The blow sounded like th,
| impact of pile driver. The big miner
never got up from where he fell. The ply.
! sician who examined his body said that
| the blow had stopped the beating of hi.
| heart.
How the Trouble Began.
| Noble drifted into Tad Moonlight's gil
| mill one night when things seemed to b,
| kind o quiet around town. The only Gus
| toner in the place was big mule-whack.
| er named Luke Finn, man whose hard
| name for cattle rustling out in Idaho had
| followed him to Montana Finn was play
| ing solitaire at table in a corner of the
| saloon. He nodded 70 Noble when the
| night marshal came in, but Noble didn't
| return the nod. When Gus didn't like