The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1901-09-28
JUNK MATES SHOOTING.

Now, 1 s'pose,'' remarked the huge man
from Arizona, that they think that's some
shooting?"
He wagged his head deprecatingly as he
turned about i'm his seat to look into the
eye of his friend and guide, the New York
er. They were at a vaudeville show, and a
pair of young women in warm-looking
buckskin waists and short skirts were
executing Yankee Doodle" by firing with
target pistols at an upright xylophone.
We'll" replied the New York man, as
the curtain descended on the performance
and the two set sail for a place where there
was a table in an alcove and a button to
push, 81 wouldn't care to have either one of
those girls swear vendetta against me
and round me up in a blind alley or corral
me in a gorge of the Grand Canyon"
call tina shooting, hey?' shifted the
vast Southwesterner. drawing up his chair
and pushing the alcove button with the
ferule of his stick. "Why. Jink McAtee
could ha' done every one of those tricks
throwing seven-pound cobDlestones at a
hundred yards, with both hands tied be-
hind his back"
link" remarked the New York man,
must nave been a bird
HE was all of that" sententiously re-
piled the mammoth man from Arizona.
There never was a man in the Southwest
that could shoot alongside of Jink McAtee
enough TO keep Jim warm. Funny thing
about Jink, too, was that he was about the
most peaceable man in the Territory at a
time when old Arizona was a heap on the
seethe. Lived in Tombstone, Jink did. when
Tombstone sure was the finest place that
YOU ever saw for a man that valued his
hide to walk sidewise in, and yet Jink never
had any trouble. Minded his own business.
Jink kept the New York general store in
Tombstone when she was on the
let the others be as bad as they wanted
to be.
"Of course, Jink had all the best of it, and
was let alone by all hands, on account of
his powerful reputation as a shootist. When
Jink first dropped along into Tombstone to
open up his store business, he knew that
there were about ten chances to one-Jink
being a sawed-o1, mild-mannered chap
that the boys nd be picking on him and
tryin' him out if he didn't do something to
show EN- that in case of a mix he was liza
BILE to be there or thereabouts.
First Sunday afternoon Jink was i'm he
strolIed out to the edge of the camp where
a " ia IVY WI ANNAA eAOaAAO III LiG
shade of their shacks drinking whisky and
observing the Sabbath in a quiet manner
Jink pulled out of his pocket a two-by-two
sheet of yellow tissue paper, spread it out
and tackled it on the ground with stakes.
The boys figured that Jink was bughouse
and they gathered around him to have
some fun with him. Jink didn't pay any
attention to them, but yanked out one of
HE mn He shifted hit ~ the oir e -.
certain the exact force of the moderate
breeze tina was blowing and then he
pointed his gun straight up at the blue sky.
THAT made the gang laugh so that thew
were just about TO do "a May pole dance
around Jink when Jink fired at the zenith
AS soon as he had fired Jink lowered his
gun and began to count-One, two, three.
four, five, six, seven, eight, nine-zipp"
Just on the stroke of ten the bullet that
Jink had fired at the heavens dropped right
into the center of the twO-by-twO sheet OF
tissue paper that JIM had staked out on
the ground.
OF those boys wideni Jink cracked a sort
of a slow grin. raised his gun over his
head, sighted it carefully, an fired again.
Again he counted, and once more. lust ON
the stroke of ten. the bullet made it's return
10 earth. 1t dropped with a little thud
right into the little hole in the tissue paper
that Jink's first bullet had made. Then
Jink fired the other four cartridges i'm quick
succession at that invisible pin point in
the sky that he was aiming at and lust
ten seconds from the instant the first Shot
was fired the balls clattered back. every
one of the four falling right smack into
the hole in the piece of tissue paper that
had been made by the first bullet!'
'Jink." put in the New York man, must
have been a peach all right
"Of course, that stunt made a hit with
the boys" went on the gigantic Southwest
erner, ignoring the New Workers. remark.
"A couple OF 'em thought there might have
been some sort of a trick about il. But
no. when they took the stakes out of the
piece OF tissue paper and picked IL up there
We're the six bullets piled on top of each
other in a little heap.
We'll. that little job made the way all
clear for Jink. He opened up his plant the
following week, and. the word having got
around of what a s~ure-enOugh ShOOtisC
link was. he wa soon doing half the gen
eral store and Quitting business of Tomb
stone. Made money hand over fist. But he
didn't care 10 spend IL like the rest of the
gang. Whisky didn't agree with him, and
he didn't care anything about poker. Fact
Is. about the only thing Jink did caro- much
about was practicing with his gum, and We
couldn't blame him much. seeing what "A
marvel he was at gun work.
link was, beyond a doubt a.
You bet he was" interrupted the Ari-
IONA giant. expansively, as he ratified the
ice against the sides OF his tall glass with
the spoon. "Jink had one style OF shoot
ing-that is, OF shooting in the derk-that
you never see Up this way at all. There
never was a marksman who could find his
aim I'm the dark like Jink.
"Jink discovered his proficiency I'm this
respect In a peculiar manner. he told me.
He WAS sleeping on the edge Of the Mojave
desert one night. 1t seems. when, sud
denly awakening. he heard the Ominous
tlesnakes some distance away from where
he'd laid his head on his saddle. He picked
up one OF the guns that lay alongside of
him. waited Tor the rattle 10 sound again.