The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1899-09-24
room indicated by Hughes with IL


bloodshot, dead-angry eyes.
You can stay where you stand
Hughes said to Bratton, who turned a
If to join the crowd over in the corner
1T would have been so perfectly cas-
for one of the group of lookouts an
dealers over in that corner to hav
plugged Hughes where he stood, wavin
his guns. that it seems peculiar none O
EN- tried it. suppose IL was becaus
! they ali knew that in the shooting
Hughes 'ud be bound to do, even as h
went down, each had a chance to ge
some of the lead.
.Bratton,3 said Hughes, never taking
his eye off the crowd in the corner
you're more different kinds and color
of skunk tin-horn and counterfeit thar
I've got hairs on the back of my hand
amt your
Yes replied Bratton. swallowing
gulp. A man who looks into a waving
Pickering gun muzzle will agree to any
old proposition.
And you don't want to do no more
brace work in this camp, do your in
quired Hughes, who was a madman
just then. If he did talk quietly.
No, answered Bratton.
| Well, said Overland Doc that be-
in the case, you can just pick up them
four tables, one by one, and chuck 'em
out O that window that YOU dropped
my kid brother from
Damn yod, Hughes said Bratton,
clenching his hands as his sides, are
you bus-house, or what's the matter
with vou2'
. On the lope. and no more chaw.'
said Hughes. I'll give you five seconds
to poke the first one out
Queer Punishment For Fraud
-Bratten wheeled with an impreca-
ton, and picked up the faro table near
est the window. 1t landed on the plank
sidewalk below with a crash. Gold and
silver and paper money. chips and
cards and box went with it.
The next one said Hughes. who
stood there quietly waving his guns to
and fro, as if he wasn't in instant dan
ger of death at the hands of one of the
men, or all of them, in the corner.
'.Bratton threw the next nearest ia
BILE cut, with all on top of it. Then he
threw the third and fourth tables out.
for~Hughes had him impaled with his
eye.
Now said Hughes. after >Bratton
had chucked the last table of his lay
out out of the window, and stood re-
garding Hughes for all the world like
grizzly with a whole fore-quarter in
trap. you follow your outfit
Hughes was three inches shorter in
stature. and weighed fully forty pounds
| less than Bratton, who was a giant
But he iabbed his guns into his belt,
the bunch in the corner never making
a move, and two leaps he had Bratton
around the waist. Bratton before be-
ing grabbed that way had made dive
for his desk to get a gun, but he wasn't
sudden enough. Hughes lifted him clear
of the ground, like a grocery boy lifts
ten-pounder paper bag of flour, and
Bratton followed his outfit He land
ed on his feet, but his left leg was
broken just below the knee. That was
the same place where Hughes kid bro
theirs leg had been broken when Brat
ton threw him out of the same window.
Hughes got his guns out the instant
he threw Bratton out of the window
and covered the, bunch in the corner
, again.
I amt got nuthin' agin the boys
that's been stackin' UP again this
game he remarked, reSuming his gun
tanning move, except that they'd be
a he'll of a sight better off if they'd play
beanbag or somethin' like that. instid o.
tryin' t whop a two-at-a-clip bank
game. But I'm sorry t have bin COM
PEELED to stick up" all hands in order
7 t make this little play, which is all on
+ account of dude brother o. mine that
got the worst of it at this honkatonk
y
Bang! went the report of gun. The
report came from the door. Bratton,
with his broken leg, had crawled up
the stairs, and with a gun the greaser
doorman had handed him had tried for
( Overland Docs lid. He went wide a.
couple of inches, and the next time
Bratton's trigger came down there was
nothing but a snap. 1t was a defective
cartridge. Hughes killed him where he
q hainer do NV a
, man in the bunch rounded up in the
corner, and then he backed out over
Bratton's body. That was the close Of
that incident
Duel With Lem Hawley.
"A couple of years later, Overland
Doc had some trouble with Lem Haw-
ley, the proprietor OF the Gilt Edge
honkatonll in La Junta- The two men
had got into an argument in the saloon
and it had wound UP by Hughes back
ing out of the door with his hands up,
Hawley having the drop on him. Haw-
ley didn't shoot, because his gun wasn't
loadedr-he had been cleaning it and had
forgotten to replace the cartridges. He d
have killed Hughes otherwise.
That same night Hughes sent word
TO Hawley that he was going to shoot
him up some. on the following day.
Hawley wasn't a man to take to the
cliffs or the cactus, having a few
notches himself, and he walked around
the next afternoon heeled like battery
of light artillery. Hughes bulged him
by turning a corner suddenly as Haw-
ley paraded down the main street, and
Hawley's hands went up for a change.
Hughes had two guns covering him,
and Hawley wasn't any fool.
This, said Hughes, is where I get
fair brake for my money. Now, you
like me so much that l want you t.
show your appreciation o. me, as it
were, by walkin' around town linked
arms with me for a while
1T was up to Hawley to comply.
Hughes jabbed his guns back into his
belt and then he clutched Hawley's left
arm and passed it through his right
accrued to Hughes. 1t left Hawley's
right gun-arm free, while in case Of
argument Hughes 'ud have had to use
his left gun. But Overland Doc wasn't
selfish.
THE population of La Junta was
amazed to see Overland Doc Hughes
and Lem Hawley, who had had a quar-
rel that meant the death of one or both
of them the night before, walking arm
in arm UP and down the main street of
the town. 1t looked like perambulat-
ing love Tease between the two of EN-
But they were watching each other like
cats At the end of the street, Hughes,
still with his right arm. linked TO Haw-
ley's left, stopped suddenly and said:
:" Lem, I amt much on tn blow
about any suddenness that may pos
sess, but 1 want t give you a chance.
You thrung it into me las night in a
way that's eat up so much Of the air
around here that there's not enough FIR
. Tsv,1 ,f~,er -