The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1902-01-30

i whose mind is made up. 1T wouldn't
i do any good. There isn't ghost of
g show for US in any legal fight. It
would be your bit Of money and mine
4 against millions"
Kilgore took the short barreled
i rife from it's sling under his saddle
flap and flicked the dust from it with
his soft hat. He had a trick of look
ing tired and sleepy upon occasion,
and at such times, as I afterward
learned, those who knew him best
watched his pistol-hand. y. 49,. H.
"Back yonder in the Tennessee
hills, wher' I come f'om,'' he said,
"ther' was wunst a Teller f'om the
north at lowed he was a-goin' to
build him a hotel on the mounting
and run railroad up to it. Nobody
never said a blame word ag'inst it,
as L ever hearn, but somehow
mother, he got sorter tired and WON
out after awhile and quit; and Their
amt no hotel mr. no railroad on that
Their mounting yit.''
We both filled in the inferential
blanks in the parable, and when Kill
gore had disappeared in the direction
of the corral, I said, jestingly:
There's an idea for you. If legal
means, fail, you can mobilize your
cowboy army and drive them out by
main strength and awkwardness.''
Macpherson laughed good-natured-
ly. IF you were half as vindictive
as you talk, you'd be holy terror.
But I'm not going to fight. At first,
I thought I should-with the Win
chesters, if it came to that
but they've been figuring around so
long that I've had a chance to think
it overland to change my mind"
1 have pathetically acute memory
for details, and it occurred to me
just then that he had spoken of the
school-mistress as peacemaker.
"Has Miss Sanborn forbidden it?"
I asked, with malice aforethought.
He was singularly embarrassed, for
a man who had made me more or
less his fidus Achates since our col
lege days in the stuffy dormitory
"You are taking good deal more
for granted Miss Sanborn-
than the facts warrant" he protest.
ed. "Of course, she is interested on
the side of peace, in a general way;
but
"But you would have me believe
that she has no personal interest in
the matter. I haven't the pleasure of
her acquaintance, but if that be the
case, I'll venture to say that she is
not very discerning young woman"
Now when you would sweat out the
secrets, sentimental or otherwise, of
any son of Adam, there is no su-
dorific like little abuse we'll rubbed
in. Macpherson's reply told me what
I wanted to know, and more
"say; you mustn't talk that way
about her, old man. [ can't listen to
it, you know. She is all that's good
and pure and sweet; and I'm-that is
to say, u
1t would have been needlessly
cruel to let. him go on stumbling:
about in the limited ocabulary of
the lover at bay. So I said:
Don't stultify yourself, my dear
boy; bring her to me that I may
bless you both before I go hence and
be no more"
"Confound it all! you will go on
taking too much for granted!" he
broke in, missing the predetermined
pathos in the last phrase. "Can't
you understand? She is Miss San
born to me yet, and I'm mr. Mac
pherson' to her. That's the. plain
truth of it,"
"All in good time, Angus, my boy.
[ can understand that there are mile
stones, even in Lovers Lane And
I can also understand that if Miss
Sanborn is on the side of submission
1 can't incite you to rebellion. Is
that the fact?"
IF you will put it that way. I
shan't fight, at any rate.''
There the matter came to the
ground of it's own weight, and I took
up the feld-glass to train it upon an
other miniature whirlwind of dust
homing across the valley.
"That's Dan Connolly" said Mac
pherson, when the dust-cloud parted
in the midst.
''How can you tell, at this dis
tance?"
by the way he rides. He was a
trooper in her majesty's Heavy
Dragons before he migrated and be-
came cow-puncher, and he jockeys
in his stirrups to this good day. Hell
lo!-what's that?"
It sounded like the fall of plank
upon plank, but I was enough of a
sportsman to recognize the crack of
a heavy rifle. Thereupon ensued a
quick-moving and stirring tableau.
The horse of the approaching range
rider made a demi- volt in air, COM
ing down broadside in it's tracks. I
looked to see the ex-trooper flung
headlong, but the glass showed him
to me fiat on the ground behind the
living breastwork withers of the
bronco. A thousand yards away, at
the black cash in the Gringo, a small