The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1902-01-24
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TWO BAD MEN
AND A FIDDLE. |
An Averfed Shooting in a Col
OradO Mining Camp.
Observation-Disclosures

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 n. Y. Sun.
zone night, when Cripple Creek was
new and raw, Biff Randall and Alec
Grubb, who were partners in a claim
that was panning out big, drifted into
SCnk Murphy's canvas honkatonk and
blew the house. Biff and Alec had
been off the reservation for four days.
Both were pretty bad men.
'Well, OH this night Biff and Alec,
being tired and precarious-like 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 a sort o. focus on the en-
frances to the tent, SOS to be able to
execute proper getaways at the need
full moment, in case there was any
thing doing between Alec and Biff.
after they'd both wetted down all
hands three or four times Biff and
Alec We're 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 Biff 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 to Denver.
"'Sonk,' said Biff to Murphy, who
was taking the watch himself behind
the bar, femme have a peep at that
music box. Maybe I'll play you a
chune. L used to be a heap on the
fiddle when was young and purity
"'Well, 1 never knowed that put in
Alec, kind O. leering and ugly. 4
knowed that you was a whole lot
strong on elbow work, but not with
the bow. If I can't play faster
chune on that thing than you can I'll
hand you over my half of our hole in
the ground
''Biff, 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 FIR keeps,
and you got to stay with that crack
or git what's comm to welcher.'
''Alec grinned Satirically and con-
fidently, and Biff began to tune up
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 it 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 to
saw The Irish Washerwoman.' 1t
didn't sound so bad at that.
Meantime we kept the off 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 to note that Alec
didn't appear to be even a little bit
worried about that def he'd pushed
over.
eve couldn't see that it looked
reasonable to suppose that Alec could
hand up faster tune than Biff had
executed, and that's why we were as
tonished to observe that there was no
sign whatever of caving on Alec's
part.
Now, you catfish said Biff to
Alec, handing over the fiddle and the
bow, you make good that chaw O.
yours about fast chunes. I'll leave it
to the bunch. If you've got me cop
pered, the whole claims yours. If
you hain't got the goods, I'm going
to mark dead line jest 1000 yards
from that hole in the foothill and
you're goin' to stay outside of it,
'Alec took the violin and bow with
his confident grin still on his face He
laid the instrument and bow down
long enough to cut himself off large
chew from a plug. After carefully
slowing the chew in the left-hand
corner of his countenance, he picked
up the fiddle and bow again, tried the
strings like a man who knew Just
where he stood, and then began on
'The Devils Dream
swell, it didn't take any of us half
a minute to see that Alec had the