Alma record. (Alma, Mich.) 1878-1928, 1902-03-28

TWO BAD MEN
AND A FIDDLE.
An Averfed Shooting I'm a COL
orado Mining Camp.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

ut HE accidentally averted TRACE
| dies are not often chronicled,
but Use seen few of that kind that
are worth telling about" said a Colo
RADIO mining man TO capitol commit
tee room group the other afternoon.
says Washington correspondent of
the y. y. Sun.
"One night, when Cripple Creek was
new and raw, Biff Randall and Alec
Grubb, who were partners in claim
that was banning out big. drifted into
Scnk Murphys canvas honkatonk and
blew the house Biff and Alec had
been off the reservation for four days.
Both were pretty bad men.
well ON this night Biff and Alec,
being tired and precarious-like on
their pins and neither OF EN- having
had any sleep for Gour days and
nights. were peevish with each other,
and the boys noticed that they were
pretty snappy in the way they talked
10 each other. Consequently the
boys kept a sort o. focus on the en-
frances To the tent. eos 10 be able 10
execute proper getaways at the need
full moment, in case there was any
thing doing between Alec and Bif.
After they'd both wetted 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 Bif caught
sight OF dusty old violin box rest
ing on shelf behind the bar. The
fiddle and case had been left with
Sonk Murphy by rover who wanted
the price Of ride back 10 Denver.
"'Sonk,' said Bif to Murphy. who
was taking the watch himself behind
the bar. femme have peep at that
music box. Maybe I'll play you a
chune. ] used to be heap on the
fiddle when was young and purity
"Well. never knowed that. put in
Alec, kind o leering and ugly. i
knowed that you was a whole lot
strong on elbow work. but not with
the bow. If can't play Il faster
chune on that thing than you can III
manu- you oNci III hdil VI OuL hOAS III
the ground
"BifT, in the act Of taking the fiddle
out Of the box, looked up at Alec
from under his shaggy eyebrows.
YOU'RE on, you Juniper he said.
pretty quiet like, considering Alec's
sneering way. You're on f'r keeps,
and you got TO stay with that crack
e. II
ALEC grinned satirically and con-
fdently, and Bif began 10 tune up
the violin. We thought he'd only
been four-hushing when he'd said
that he could play some on the thing,
but We saw by the way he tuned il up
that he knew something about il.
lie put some rosin on the bow, sat
down SOS to be more steady, stuck
the fiddle under his chin and began 10
saw The Irish WasherwOman.' IL
didn't sound SO bad al that.
Meantime We kept the off eve on
Alec. We figured that Alec was out
on limb. Now, considering the
merit of Biff's performance. We were
a-plenty surprised to note that Alec
didn't appear To be even little bit
worried about that def he'd pushed
over.
I'VE couldn't see that II looked
reasonable 10 suppose that Alec could
hand up a faster tune than Biff had
executed. and that's why we were as
tonished 20 observe that there was no
sign whatever of caving on Alec's
part.
Now. YOU catfish said Bif 10
Alec, handing over the fiddle and the
bow, YOU make good that chaw %
yours about fast chimes. I'll leave il
to the bunch. II you've got me cop
pered. the whole claims yours II
you hain't got the goods, I'm going
TO mark "a dead line jest 1000 yards
from that hole in the foothill and
you're goin' 10 stay outside of it,
ALEC took the violin and bow with
his confident grin still ON his face. lie
laid the instrument and bow down
long enough 10 cut himself off large
chew from Il plug. After carefully
slowing the chew i'm the left-hand
corner of his countcnance. he picked
up the fiddle and bow again, tried the
strings like man who knew Just
where he stood, and then began ON
The Devils Dream.
"Well. il didn't take any of MS half
minute TO see that Alec had the
merchandise and that he had Eff
beat. Alec was right there with The
DEVILS Dream and there are not
many faster fiddle tunes than that.
"Alec rocked around in his seat quite
lot while he played, but he didn't
make any breaks in his lingering or
bowling. and he tore off that tune
faster'n a runaway Stag train going