The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-01-09

the eye of the bartender, and ne gave
me a look which said GO away as
plainly as words could have done.
please excuse me- said. i have
just had one
"'You're making too much talk the
stranger said and turned to the bar
tender. Set out the stuff and couple
| of glasses. The gentleman with
drawing sarcastic emphasis on the
word, is going to do me the high honor
to take a drink with me-
1.-The gentleman says he does not
want to drink said the bartender, set
ting before him a whiskey bottle and
glass.
1.-THE stranger filled the glass to the
brim and, not taking his eyes from
| mine, pushed. it along the counter to-
ward me. I saw that he meant to go
| through with what he had started to
| do. 1t was his first outbreak since he
had begun drinking in the morning,
| and all the homicidal devil within him,
which had been coming to the surface
as he turned in the liquor, now had full
| control He showed no excitement
only the COOL hateful elaboration
| which meant a thousand times more
| danger than any amount of tearing
| around and noisy bluff could have done.
! He had made no threat. had shown no
weapon, but threats and weapons were
| piled in his look. Watching him. I was
| aware that the oattlemen had stopped
| in their conversation to look, and that
| the bartender, fresh-faced, boyish-
| looking young fellow, was pulling the
| bottle toward him as he wiped the
| counter with cloth.
$50 you'll not drink your whiskey,
said the stranger, with an ugly setting
of his jaw and drawing at the cor
ners of his thin lips, as l shook my
| head. You'll take this way then and
with motion as sudden as cats he
threw the whiskey into my eyes. AS,
blinded, smarting and half knocked off
my feet by the shock, l chung helpless
| to the counter crashing sound was
in my ears and noise of the falling of
| flying glass. then the slam of a chair
| overturned in the corner where the cat
tlemen We're, and the footsteps of men
| gathering about me. Somebody wiped
my eyes with wet towel and the bar
| tenders voice said:
"'Come with me. Here, step around
little, this way. Now straight
ahead
| Holding my hand and with one arm
aroundsffe, the bartender was guiding
| my steps to the back room of the sa
loon. He turned me aside once as we
went, but not so quickly but that my
| foot tripped against something on the
floor which I knew to be the body of n
man. Then 1 heard him pouring water
into basin, and he said: Now, dip
| your eyes in this and keep them there
| till doctor comes
| by the time the doctor came, which
was in a few minutes, the smarting of
| my eyes was nearly gone, and could
see as well as ever. With my face in
the water I had not paid much atten-
ton to the comings and goings in the
room, but when I lifted my head and
| 7 a n m
| standing about a man stretched out on
a plank laid across some Whiskey bar
rels 1t was the stranger who had
thrown the liquor in my eyes, and he
| was as dead as Julius Caesar. A smash
in the head with a whiskey bottle had
| settled him short, and it was the boy
| ish-looking bartender who had done the
| trick
s"I landed the bottle none too soon,'
| the bartender said to me afterward. He
had his pistol half way out when he
went down. Why should he wish to kill
! you? Ask me something easier. All I
know is, some men get that way when
| liquor is in them. If I'd missed him?
Well, I didn't mean to miss, or have
I him coming round afterward to pick
up the quarrel again. l pitched base
I ball in a league club two years before I
! came West, and / knew what I could
| do
~ Harry, J. m AFRAID you We cheated
some sheriff's officer out of a reward
said Mysterious Dave Mathes, the city
marshal, to the bartender when ne
came to view the dead robber. If there
| isn't an "alive or dead" reward out for
| this fellow somewhere, I'm no judge of
| human countenance. You've spoiled
| his looks some what that bottle. Say,
! Harry. don't you think 'twould have
| been friendly to have given me tip
that he was looking for trouble? I'd
! have saved him up till we found out
| whether there was any market value
! in the galoot. There's a way of doing
| these things officially, you know, and
| we're setting up for civilized COM
munty in Las Vegas
"Hoodoo Brown, the city magistrate,
was of Mysterious Dawes opinion.
+ Butts it's too late now, and it's no Use
crying over split milk he remarked,
| philosophically There's nothing left
| for me to do now but impanel jury
! to acquit Harry on grounds of self
defense, for killing this gentleman,
name unknown, from nowhere. The
| joke Is on the city officers, or on the
| corpse, and, pending a decision, the
| house will set up the drinks.
ut never to my knowledge was found
| out who the gentleman from nowhere
| was. and, in default of a name, his
resting place is unmarked among the
| illustrous dead who have ceased from
| warfare and sleep their last sleep in
Boot Hill cemetery outside the old
| town"