Rocky Ford enterprise., 1899-02-09

around the Rocky Mountains and be-
yond," said Col. Noah Parker. 1T re-
luired good many different kinds of
nerve for person to keep the lamp
Of life from going entirely out. to say
nothing of being comfortable and
happy. ! particularly remember one
example that illustrates how nerve
had to be adapted to different walks
of life out there In those days IN
order that everything might come out
right. There was the nerve of Widow
McCool and Jim Kidd, who eloped In
spite OF Mart Huntoon and his gang
Of bad men. and Jim was stealing the
widow away from Mart. at that. or,
rather. the widow was stealing her
self away from Mart and taking Jim
along.
The Widow McCool's exhibition of
nerve began at Dry Cheyenne. and al
though she was widow. she wasn't l6
years old yet. She hadn't wanted to
, lake the name of McCool q little bit, but
Sam McCool had plenty OF money ana
her folks didn't have any and wanted
some. Sam wanted her, and so her
folks insisted that she should marry
him, and she had the nerve to do 1t,
for It required nerve for any girl to
marry Sam McCool But she was the
Widow McCool in less than six months.
Sam got into a muss down at Douglas,
and the other fellow was the quicker
with his gun. Not long after she be-
came the Widow McCool the stage
route company made her Its agent at
Dry Cheyenne.
THE widow was trim and snappy,
lark as Mexican almost, and pretty
as a picture. a dozen of the boys fell
in love with her on the go In. but she
Kept 'em at distance. By and by
Mart Huntoon, the rich ranchman. saw
The widow one day. and he wasn't In
the habit of letting anything get away
that he wanted. and the upshot of the
matter was that the Widow McCool at
last consented to marry him and help
him get rid of some OF his dollars.
Mart was q tough one, and about the
handiest man with gun there was in
that region, and he had bad gang OF
..ustlers at his back. Mart and the
Widow were to be married early in
May, and about the first OF the month
who should drop into Dry Cheyenne
but Jim Kidd.
"Jim was a quiet sort of chap. but
he was game. He sold goods out
through the country for house in the
East. The minute he got his eyes on
| the Widow McCool he was gone, and
the fun of 1t was that the widow fell
In love with him on sight, too. There
was to be dance at Sheffield n couple
Of nights after Jim struck Dry Chey-
enne, and he asked the Widow McCool
IL she would go with him and take it
in. She said that she would. but at
the same time told Jim that IL Mart
Huntoon got wind of it, the chances
were frst-rate for their both coming
back to Dry Cheyenne feet first. But
she and Jim sneaked away and went
to the dance. Sheffield was twenty
miles from Dry Cheyenne. 1t wasn't
long before some OF the boys missed
Jim and the Widow. They suspected
that they had gone to the dance, and
word was sent to Mart. He came down
from his ranch crazy mad. and got to-
gether half q dozen or SO of his gang.
and away they went for Sheffield and
the dance. When they got there they
found Jim and the Widow McCool in
the midst of the festive throng. The
Widow discovered the new arrivals at
once, and quietly asked Jim if he had
a pistol. Jim said he had two.
"'All right, said the Widow. Keep
'em handy. You'll need 'em before
long,
Then she and Jim took their places
for the next dance. Before this was
over Mart's gang started row and
begun to close in on Jim Kidd. He
backed up against door at one side
of the ballroom and whipped out his
two six-shooters. The gang pressed
on, and Jim shot Ed Cooke. Mart's
foreman, AMI another of Mart's men