The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1898-05-22
A SUDDEN "vAeUERou JERK.

themselves had disregarded in the pur-
suit and capture. let this strange log
ic of the frontier sufficed them, and
gave certain dignity to the climax.
EFF you've got onything to say to
your folks, say it now, and say it
quick" said the ringleader.
Red Pete glanced around him. He
had been run TO earth at his own cabin
in the clearing whence a. new relations
and friends-mostly women and chill
dren, oncombatants-had outfioweo,
gazing Vacantly at the 20 vigilantes who
surrounded them All weressaccustomed
to scenes of violence, blood feud, chase
and hardship; it was only the sudden
ness of the onset and its quick result
that had surprised them. They looked
on with dazed curiosity and some dis
appointment; there had been no fight
TO speak ONO spectacle A boy
nephew of Red Pete-got upon, the rain
barrel to view the proceedings more
comfortably; a tall, handsome, lazy
Kentucky girl, a visiting nelghbor,
leaned against the doorpost chewing
gum. Only d yellow hound was actively
perplexed. He could not make out if
hunt was lust over or beginning, and
ran eagerly backward and forward,
leaping alternately upon the%-ptlVes
and the captOrS.
The ringleader repeated his challenge.
Red Pete gave q reckless laugh and
looked at his wife.
At which Mrs. Red Pete came for
ward. 1t seemed 'that she had much to
say-incoherently. furiously, vindict-
ively-to the ringleader. His soul would
roast in he'll for that days work! he
called himself man. skunkin' in the
open and afraid TO show himself eX-
cept with q crowd Of other "ki-ye's"
nh
dren. Heaping insult on insult, inveigh-
ing against his low blood. his ancestors,
his dubious origin, she at last flung out
a wild taunt Of his invalid wife-the
insult of a woman to a woman-untl
his white face grew rigid, and only that
western-American fetish of the sane
tity of sex kept his twitching fingers
from the lock of his rifle. Even her
husband noticed it, and with half
authoritative Let up on that, old gal,
and a pat OF his freed left hand on her
back, took his last parting. The ring
leader, still white under the lash of
the woman's tongue, turned abruptly
to the second captive. And if you've
got anybody to say goodbye to, nows
your chance
The man looked up Nobody stirred or
spoke. He was a stranger there-being
a chance confederate picked up by Red
Pete, and known to no one. Still young,
but an outlaw from his abandoned boy
hood of which father and mother were
only an ugly forgotten dream, he loved
horses and stole them, fully accepting
the frontier penalty Of life for the inter-
ference with that animal on which a
mans life so often depended. But he
understood the good points of a horse,
as was shown by the one he 'bestrode-
until a few days before the property of
Judge BoomDointer
The unexpected question stirred him
for q moment out of the attitude of
reckless indifference, for attitude it was,
and a part of his profession. But it may
have touched him that at that moment
he was less than his companion and his
virago wife. However, he only shook
lis head. AS he did so, his eye casually
fell on the handsome girl by the door
post, who was looking at him. The
ringleader, too, may have been touched
by his complete loneliness, for he hest
tated. At the same moment he saw that
the girl was looking at his friendless
captive.
A grotesqUe idea struck him.
'.Salomy Jane, We might do worse
than come yere and say 'good-by' to a
dying man, and him stranger, he
said.
There seemed to be subtle stroke of
poetry and irony in this that equally
struck the apathetic crowd. 1t was well
known that Salomy Jane Clay thought
no small potatoes of herself, and al
ways held off the local swain with
lazy nymph-like scorn. Nevertheless,
she slowly disengaged herself from the
docrpost, and, to everybody's astonish-
ment, lounged with languid grace and
outstretched hand toward the prisoner.
The color came into the gray, reckless
mask which the doomed man wore as
her right arm grasped his left, just
.oosed by his captors. Then she paused,
her shy, fawn-like eyes grew bold and
liked themselves upon him. She took the
chewing gum from her mouth, wiped
aer red lips with the back of her hand,