The Opelousas courier., 1902-05-10
he shouted. "if you have any chasing

ne knoUCeds III you nave any CHASING
to do"
Ed nodded, and in a moment he and
his horse were in the autumn dust
of the trail to Thompson's. Halvor-
son still frightened " what he had
seen Thompson doing to his wife, lin
gered in the town. A game of quoits
was started in the square, and was
well under way when a shout from
the head of the street attracted every
body's attention. Down the street.
came Thompson, riding a white Indian
mare, himself hatless, coatless. blood
streaming from his face and blood ooz-
ing through the back of his shirt. His
mare was running like a prairie fire
on the upland and Blue Duck made
no attempt to check her. Gentle
man" Ed had charge of the game.
Thompson few. through the square
headed for the north, and a moment
later Ed came in sight, his black horse
running close to the ground, his ears
sticking straight ahead, every leap
bringing him nearer to Thompson.
Ed was sitting erect, swinging lightly
in his saddle, the sawed-of gun held
at half rest in the crook of his arm,
his eyes on Thompson and the white
me1a.
"a race for your life," shousSsd An
derson.
me trnk Meester Thompson nsgyair
come back" mumbled BaIyorsonR
Both riders disappeared in the graat
NAV of the plain and then faintF,
whistling softlyron the wind, cane
back a single report OF a gun. =
That's the dispenser" said Ande4
son.
Half an hour later Ed rode into town
and swung out of his saddle in front
of the mo. 1 Hard" He tossed the
dispenser" to Anderson, who. look
ing at it critically. exclaimed:
"Sure you didn't use it."
mo-" said Ed. He turned to the
crowd, and as the men stopped their
chatter so that he might speak said:
Thompson only knocked his wife
s~enseless. I found her coming to
when I got to the shack and Thompson
saddling up. I covered him quick and
he dropped his guns short. Then
had the woman cover him, and I laid
the quirt on his face and back until
I cut him to the bone. I told him the
law of this country vas that a woman
comes first, and that the man that
raised a hand to one Of them was
worse than a dog; that I came out to
kill him, but thought, after all, a lit
tie of his own medicine would be best.
The woman never peepeG-onfy her
eyes b1aZed and she ne1e.' took her
eyes of Of him or the sights of the
gun. / think she would have shot him
If I had been away. She had him for
the first time in her life.
well, I took the gun from her and
was coming back when Thompson,
who had been down on the ground,
jumps up. strikes at her, leaps on his
pony and starts pell-mell for town.
He got q good 200 yards start of me,
but I let the black have his head, and
you saw us go through. Thompson's
mare, after she left here, headed
straight for the Mouse country, and
I guess she's going yet. That's all
there is to 1t, boys"
He slipped one of his guns out, flip
ped an empty shell from it, blew down
the pistols barrel, slipped in a new
cartridge and snapped the cylinder in
place:
Il tell you," Anderson, he remarked,
your dispenser is all right, but for
hitting anything when you don't mean
to miss under any circumstances these
single actions take the prize"
And that was all we ever knew of
Thompson. No one cared to ask Ed
what really happened; no one ever
looked for Thompson. Blue Duck was
not inquisitive on some things. Mrs.
Thompson In time married again, and
married well. Thompson never came
back.-H. ]. Cleveland, in the Chicago
Record-Herald.