The times., 1899-10-06

before she was ragin' now. She called me
liar to me face and said that Mr.. john
son had given it to her. SO you're goin'
to marry him?' l says, and she blurts
out that Mr.. johnson and her papa was
goin' into partnership In way, and that
she was in the bargain.
Il run down to the stable and there was
Mcguire and Johnson. / see Johnson take
out a pocketbook and pick a memoran-
dunn out of 1t. Il was my pocketbook-
walks up to him and says: congratulate
you on your engagement to Miss Dovita,
says L: The devil ye do, he says, lookin'
at me as If I was yelier dog. Thank ye,
he says. That's q fine ring ye gave her,
I says, might 1 ask where you got it?'
None of your dom business, says he, far
in up. No. sayslI nor it's none of my
business where ye got that pocketbook,
naither, only they both belong to me-.
What's the meaning of all this?' says
Mcguire, openin'5 his eyes. The mans
crazy, says Johnson. but he looked mighty
white around the gills Bad cess to ye,'
says l. It's not your fault if | am not,
after the crack on the coco We gave me
awhile back in Kansas City Then old
Mcguire begins to get next to the facts
of the case I never was in Kansas City ,
says johnson, loekin' uncomfortable. Sure,
then you'll soon have that pleasure says
|, an I'll be We escort And with that I
pulls me gun.
Go easy says Mcguire. He's the one
that had better go easy, says /, take his
gun from him. See here, says johnson,
you're talkin bosh. I'm out OF the juris-
dicsion of both Kansas and Missouri, and
only a United States marshal can touch
me- so you've studied that out, We
blackguard, I says. Well Jurisdiction or
no jurisdiction, I'll touch ye, me bucko
1,,5 ,t,,3
City before night if l have TO haul ye along
with lariat' That's kidnapping says be.
Sure, you're no kid says l, but dirty
thieving blackguard of a thug and high
wayman.' And then Mcguire gets his
tongue loose, and the way we lambasted
that shiverin' diyil in good Irish-American
was sight for the angels.
" See here says johnson, when he
could get a word in. i know nothin' about
your ring and pocketbook but rather than
have any trouble I'm willin' TO settle
Now you're talkin' sense l says; give me
back me diamond and me money I
haven't got $4,000 with me- says Johnson.
'Bein' as you're so innocent, l says. how
did you know it was $4,000 I lost?' That
knocked him clean out and he hadn't
another word to say. Throw me that
pocketbook,' / says, fierce like, and he
done 1t. / counted over $4,000 III bills in
| it. Would ye rob me?' cries the sniyelin'
sneak. Turn about is fair play I says,
pleasant enough, but seem the ginteel
way you're behavin', I'll only take back
me own, with interest for the loan. With
that I counts out $1,000 and gives him back
! the rest.
Now can go?' asks Johnson. Keep
| your shirt on, | says, there's another lit
| tie matter to be settled between us. You
4 +ba bon 81
! head with a billy, and I'm goin' to re-
| turn the compliment by writin' mine on
| your face with me fists. Mcguire will see
! fair play If I'd have known how that
devil could fight l mightn't have been
so free. He come at me like a cyclone,
and kept me as busy as a boy driving
pigs. He bumped himself elegant. and old
Mcguire, at a safe distance gave some
real old Irish yells that near stampeded the
cattle in the corral. But l can scrap a bit
myself, and I thumped that thief beauti-
| ful. He wasn't pretty to look at when he
yelled enough And 1 wasn't just fixed
to have me photograph taken, neither but
I'd had me satisfaction, and felt better.
Johnson washed his face at the we'll
/ brushed himself with a horse brush, and
started on his forty mile walk to town.
haven't seen him since.
ME and Mcguire went back to the
house. There was Dovita, who had seen
the whole business, half cryin and beg
gin to know what it was all about The
old man told her, and then Dovita says
turnin red: This is your ring. Mr.. Haley
Mister Haley, mind ye-and she offers IL
to me. Think it over, says l, maybe
you'd like to keep il.
We'll, that's what she done. Say, them
Martinetti cocktails that barkeep juggles
up is fine drinking. What do ye say?"