The Beaver herald. [volume] (Beaver, O.T. [Okla.]) 1895-1923, 1902-02-06
TWO BAD MEN
AND A FIDDLE.
An Aveefed Shooting In . Col.
onsdo Mining Camp.


vi He ucciuenthuy uNcrteu trugc-
dies are not often chroniclcd,
but Use seen few of that kind that
are worth telling about" said Colo
rndo mining man to capitol commit
tee room group the other afternoon,
says Washington correspondent of
The N. Y. Sun.
"One night. when Cripple Creek was
new and raw, Bif Randall and Alec
arubb, who were partners In n claim
that was panning out big. drifted into
Sonk Murphy's canvas honkatonk and
blew the house. BIZ and Alec had
been of the reservation for four days.
Both were pretty bad men.
swell, on this night Biff and Alec,
being tired and prccarious-likc on
their pins. and neither OF 'em having
had any sleep for four days and
nights, were peevish with each other.
and the boys noticed that they were
pretty snappy in the way they talked
to each other. Consequently the
boys kept sort o. focus on the en-
frances to the tent, SOS 10 be able to
execute proper getaways Mt the need
full moment, in case there was nny-
thing doing between Alec and Bifr.
"Aftcr they'd both wcttcd down all
hands three or four times Biff and
Alec were naturally quite some more
to the bad than before they'd come
In, and they continued to have fancy
little cracks at each other for some
reason or other. Finally l,iff caught
sight of n dusty old violin box rest
ing on shelf behind the bar. The
fiddle and case had been left with
sonk Murphy by n rover who wanted
the price of ride back tn Denver.
"'Sonk,' said BiG to Murphy. who
wns taking the watch himself behind
the bar, femme have peep at that
music box. Maybe I'll play you a
chune. used to be n heap on the
fiddle when ] was young and purity
"'Wcll. I never knowed that put in
Alec. kind o. lecring and ugly. i
knowed that you was whole lot
strong on elbow work, but not with
the bow. II can't play n faster
cbune on that thing than you cnn IN
hand you over my half Of our hole in
Che ground
"Biff, In the net of taking the fiddle
out of the box, looked up Mt Alec
from under his shnggy eyebrows.
"'YOu're on, you juniper he said.
pretty quiet like, considering Alcc's
sneering way. You're ON fr keeps,
and you got TO stay with that crack
or git what's comm to n wclcher.'
''Alcc grinned satirically and con
fdently, and Bifr began To tune mp
the violin. We thought he'd only
been four-fushing when he'd said
that he could play some on the thing,
but we saw by the way he tuned II up
that he knew something about It.
''He put some rosin on the bow. sat
down SOS to be more steady. stuck
the fiddle under his chin and began Ia
saw The Irish Washcrwoman.' IL
didn't sound so bad at that.
meantime we kept the Oft eye ON
Alec. We figured that Alec was out
ON a limb. Now, considering the
merit of Biff's performance. we were
a-plenty surprised 10 note that Alec
w DC tseh " htti' oit
worried about that def he'd pushed
over.
1--WE couldn't sec that II looked
reasonable to suppose that Alec could
hand up faster tune thnn BiT had
executed, and that's why we were as
tonished to observe that there was nc
sign whatever of caving on Alec's
part.
SNOW, you catfish said Biff "a
Alec, handing over the fiddle and the
bow, you make good that chaw %
yours abont fast chunes. I'll leave II
TO the bunch. II you've got me cop
pered, the whole claims yours. II
you hnin't got the goods, I'm going
to mark a dead line jest 1000 yarl'
from that hole In the foothill and
you're goin' To stny outside of it.
"Alec took the violin and bow Will
his confident grin still on his face. II,
laid the instrument and bow down
long enough To cut himself of n large
chew from plug. After careful,
slowing the chew In the left-hant
corner of his countcnance, he picked
up the fiddS and bow again, tried tn,
strings like man who knew just
where he stood. and then began oi
The DEVILS Dream
swell. II didn't take any OF us hal
a minute to see that Alec had tn,
merchandise and that he had Bif
beat Alec was right there with 9Th,
DEVILS Dream and there are not
many faster fiddle tunes than that.
"Alec rocked around In his seat quite
a lot while he played, but he didn't
make any breaks In his lingering ol
bowing, and he tore OFT that tun,
fsster'n n runaway Stag train going
down a mountain side. Well. whcr
we saw the way the situation stood
We began tn sort o. edge sidcwise to
ward the tent flap.
"We hadn't been asked To be mad,
umpires and none Of ms felt exactl,
like pushing To the front and handing
down any decision as TO the respectiv,
virtuoso abilities of Biff and Alec. w,
saw that DlfY's eyes were baszing ant
that his nigh hand was sort o. twid
Cling nervously In the direction ol
his gun. And 80 our tide Just nat
urally set toward the tent flap.
"Alcc set the fiddle and bow dowr
after he'd got through and grinnct
qulxxically and powerful irritatingl,
~ Bln. Bin had chagrined. evi
l<,ok ON his man TINT ought to'yt