The Forrest City times., 1903-12-18
Their Lasf
 Trail
By William Buckley


 | hands Of Baxter street elothier aeprivss him Of all powsr Of speech. what argument can a cowboy be e1- pected to enforce If you take away his arus- The short. sharp bark of his pistol. always al hand. quick. faithful and vicious aS 8 watchdog. is the col league of his disputation l. Is the italics. the exclamation point, the con- elusion Of his syIloxistic premises. and the umpire of his debate This. a. least. is the case with the very new est and toughest western settlements
 Rapid City lthe city being the star a which the townspeople aimed. rather than an index of populatioal- Rapid City was an extreme example Of these picturesque but unwhoiesome communities. The alarming death rate. indeed. managed to secure the town certain amount Of free adyer- Using. but even this was of sort that tended to induce less immigration than emigration.
 The realization of this latter un- poetic truth compelled the local mar shal 10 issue a reluctant edict forbid ding man. woman. child or broncho 10 pack a gun" in the vague Him. it's of the city. lie was not blind to the heroic poetry of stalking a life on q tiny bullet. or the dramatic justice of an appeal 10 arms: but he was there primarily 10 serve the municipal ad- vantage. So he nailed up his mani festo-with the revolutionary effect of Luther's thesis.
 Now. the present incumbent of the marshalsy of Rapid City had won his exalted position solely because no one could recall time when he had been either dilatory for a fatal moment. or inaccurate for an effective hairs breadth in his manipulation of that product of the American desire for quick results.
 So the eow-punchers took out their revenge in oaths and threats against the next election. and from the very day after the edict the place of the pistol knew 1t no more.
 Men had a half-clad look and naked. defenseless feeling without their customary armament Many hand went back to an unresponsiye belt, and quarrels went tame and all unsatisfactory. How was man 10 prove his ownership of an over boiling jackpot" with only empty hands to verify his claim? How set the tenderfoot 10 hopping in Terp- sichoreaa terror7 How avenge the lie direct without artillery? For lists are urdignified weapons on the frontier, and for use only in unim- portant squabbles. and as an introduc- ton 10 the higher court procedure Of the revolver.
 Rapid City had managed to survive about a week of this uncomfortable negative virtue. when Jesse Bolande Esq, rode into town at about four of the afternoon. He had been on his ranch all week. and as he stood at the unmirroreG bar of "Keno Jim's Place" he listened to the new state of affairs with many an oath of incredulous amaze At his right side. hammer to the front. swung his far-famed A ex- tra-long revolver. To demand it of him would be calling on Hector to yield up his lance and count himself tanned
 So Bolande stood lounging in re- faxed might across the grimy little bar and throwing into his unseared throat glassfuls of liquid fire-that uncon- gealed lava of a western distlllery-vol- cano Suddenly those al the window began to evince genuine excitement. a thing unusual in the more than so- cially blase w-punchers. whom mortal combat hardly galyanizes.
 One of them blurted out. smacking his lips Valkyrie-wise in anticipation of a magnificent battle: Watch out. Bolande, the marshal's comin'"
 Bolande shrugged his huge frame in contemptuous indifference. Quick upon this heralding came the marsha's au- gust self. He paused just inside the door and bliEked his eyes. in intro duction to the dusk of the low hrowed room. In the twilight he did not i'm pose an heroic figure. His colossally impressive power saluted you only when the full day brought you a glimpse of jaw that was not square and phlegmatic. but yet gaunt and nervously firm; of eyes that did not waste their ferocious steel in a set ferceness. and yet gave a hint of turk ing demons. The marshal was hard ly above medium height. and rather be- low medium weight. His light bones were wrapped with steel wire rather than with ponderous muscles. whose bulk is their own chief hindranee The marshal wore a pistol at his side. ex- oficio. His duty demanded f. and no msn feared it's abuse in the oye-like gentleness of his unoffcnsive moods.
 The marshal and Bolande were old friends. They had once moiled on q ragged claim upon the mountains to- gether; they had stood back to back ir sbirsaishes with yelling savaSes in howlns wilderness. And now their youthful mistress, Adventure. had lost charm for them and they had drawn into the shell that man in his for ties will protect with his fife from any eneroachment. though he has no de-