The Washington times., 1902-01-05

Y r E was big and red and lank, awk-
ward and uncouth. figure not
pretty to look at and some
a what terrifying to the mere su-
perficial observer Some said he was a
half breed, but the Crow was there pre-
dominant; the long straight hair, the rich
coppery skin, the small vicious eyes, the
falcate nose. the thin, peaked jaw-all
these were distinctive. And no man with
white blood in his veins could have borne
to be so uncleanly.
From the first day that he was attached
to the little squad of scouts he was looked
upon with suspicion; he had no intimates
no companions. no one into whose toler-
ant ear he might speak word, no one
from whom he might expect sympa
thetic glance. An outcast from his tribe,
he had not bettered his condition. His
brother scouts hated him. would have
despised had they dared: the enlisted men
avoided him as if he were pestilent, the
officers endeavored to ignore the fact that
he infested the camp; whenever:ind wher-
ever the shadow of his angular igure fell
every man in the neighborhood got away
with the least possible delay-no one felt
easy in his company. In a word, he was
subject to all the aversion shown to a
man that has the reputation of being
ugly.
Not. however. that he really was so.
They called him Devil Jim more because
he had simply the promise Of growing up
10 the title than because he had done
anything to gain it, While he was in the
guardhouse most Of the time. he was
there for the reason that that was the
most convenient place to Keep tim-when
he wasn't there he was drunk. He got
drunk as often as he could, which was
just as often as the other scouts and the
enlisted men did; but he seemed to have
greater opportunity. He was never at
liberty long enough to think of any overt
act of lawlessness- Everybody said he
would if he got the chance. and that is
why. doubtless. he was SO promptly
clapped into Jail, Notwithstanding the
other view Of prevalent i'll feeling toward
him.
AS ting were on and he was guilty of
nothing 70. ,i.-ch serious charge could
be brought against him (and more than
one regretted it, everyone was greatly
astonished. His comrades said, with evil
grunts that the time would come-sure:
the officers were equally apprehensive. if
not so outspoken. and there was not one
who did not secretly wish the bugbear re-
moved. Thus ii was that Devil jim got
The name of being terror without trying
for it.
In the fall Of the year young Robinson
came up from Texas. Robinson was a
youngster only a year or SO from the
Point, but he was already married and he
had got transferred from the Fifth, in
Texas, TO the Second, in Wyoming, on ac-
count of the climate in the Rio Grande
Valley not agreeing with his wife. When
he came to Shoshone he brought not only
Mrs. Robinson, but an infant of year,
with its nurse, and three or four pack
loads Of little tables with bamboo legs,
low spreading wicker chairs, waste-paper
baskets with blue ribbon run through the
sticks and screens with japanese storks
woven in bullion. There was also a re-
splendent baby carriage.
When pretty little Mrs. Robinson, deli
cate and harebell-like. first caught sight
of Devil Jim she was SO terrified by his
aspect that she trembled at intervals for
days afterward. 1t happened one after
noon when she was sitting in her modest
veranda and when Jim was enjoying one
Of his rare holidays out of the guardhouse.
He merely passed by; he was not drunk,
for the clerk at the post traders had
just told him he would talk to him on
payday" he did not even look at her.
But the apparition was SO terrifying in it