Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1899-08-12

SooHilSiy IyiHS W WHGlHST lie
was crazy, or just a buffer.
Il got five hundred dollars tibet says you
won't go to no Dodge with plug hat
on he said, pulling out his roll.
wad instantly.
THE freighteF was puzzled to have his
wager picked up so quickly, but he stood
for it, and both men put up their money
with the La Junta agent of the express
company. They arranged to start for
Dodge City the next week. Short sent up
to Denver for so silk hat, and it reached
him couple of days later. Two days after
that they took the train in company for
Dodge, the freighter being still unaware
of Shorts identity as the quickest man on
the trigger in the whole west. as well as
the most dangerous man in q knife fight.
AS the train drew close to Dodge City the
freighter said to Short:
'Podner yo' had better take my advice
and not git off with tibet thing on yo' head.
Yo' kin pull yo' bet down. | don't know
nothin' about yo' family, even if yo'
got one, but eff the boys shoot yo' up, as
they're boun' t do, it'll stort O. stick by
me, and | amt no killer myself. Better
git off with yo' regular everyday hat on
Luke smiled.
The bet stands said he, and he reach
ed down to the bandbox, pulled out the
silk hat, stroked it with the sleeve of his
blue flannel shirt and put it on. He had
two guns strapped to his waist, top boots
and all that sort of makeup, but yet,
with it all, he looked the quiet, unassum-
ms NUT Iidp IIe always was.
There the usual crowd of men
around the station when the train pulled
up, and the usual number of them We're
drunk and boisterous
reckon I'll stay aboard an watch tn
game said the freighter when he saw the
crowd.
"'All right said Short, and then he
stepped out to the car platform, a queer
picture, with the plug hat set jauntily
one side of his head and his makeup of
frontlersman.
"'Howdy, Luke said Iafe' Towers, the
night marshal who was in the crowd at
the station. Towers was the only man
there who knew Short, and he didn't say
anything about it.
The eyes of every man in that crowd
of nearly a hundred men were on Luke
Short as he calmly stepped from the train,
and not a man said word. There was
something in Shorts serious countenance,
in his determined carriage, and probably
In the incongruity of the shiny silk hat in
combination with the blue flannel shirt and
the other strictly western effects in DRESS
that seemed to hold them off 1t would
have been quite in keeping with the GUS
toms and practices of Dodge City for the
bunch Of men at the station to shoot that
silk hat into ribbons as Short deliberately
walked down the main street. without once
turning around, but this is just the thing
that didn't happen. 1t didn't happen at
any stage of the game, either; there wasn't
even a single shot fired. Short walked into
the 'Gilded Grub saloon. still with that
shiny hat set on one ear. strolled up to
the bar and asked for drink There were
a lot of bad men in the saloon, but they
just looked. They didn't say anything
about the hat, and they didn't shoot. Short
took his drink. and then he removed the
hat and held 1t in his hands for minute
I don't seem to get any action on this
thing he said out loud, and SO it's Of no
further use to me-
"Whereupon he placed it on the floor,
brim down and jumped on 1t until 1t was
pulp. Meanwhile the freighter had fol-
lowed him up, noticing that there was no
shooting, and he took Short by the hand.
"'Podner, said he, yo' win, and yo' kin
TELEGRAPH tn man at La Junta t send tn
dust along to We. Vile 1 respecks yo' fr
bein' a man O. nerve, I KANT respeck yo
FIR being d-n fool, witch the same, beg
gin y'r pardin', 1 thinks yo' is
Nobody ever made any lunges at Luke
Short while he was in Dodge, it's needless
to add"