Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1904-07-28

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around there just tc make her tired Of
living. | suppose she might have
thought some of trying to reform me
If she had known, but I didn't ask her
to take the job. I knew there wasn't
any reform in me, and wen If | had
been reformed down to the ground, 1
wouldn't have been good enough for
her. l didn't poster her once with any
news of me and my feelings, only I
used to watch for her sometimes, and
away out along the trail till her pony
came by-then I'd go back to the camp
and think. Thinking is good for a fell
low when he gets sentimental. It's a
darned sight better than talking. That
slip of a girl kept me pretty straight
for a time, only she didn't know it.
The I'll tent could have gone dry for
all of me, and my muscles got so soft
from stand-idle they were almost fab
by. 1t was a queer thing the way that
little kid"
Zilk stopped abruptly.
Where does Jim Dowly come in?"
asked Bob.
Zilk looked up.
"Dowly?" he said, musingly, as If it
were an effort to get the girl out of
his mind, "Dowlyy Lord! l must
have been borr hating him! At any
rate, we had a feud so long back that
I've forgotten how the thing started.
1t wasn't the feud, anyway, that made
me hate Jim, but just his pure cussed-
ness. Sometimes, though, l feel as if
I'd be lonesome if I really did take a
drop on him, I've got SO used to hating
him."
whats he got to do with the girl?"
Bob asked, gingerly. We expected
some objections, but none came. Zilk
was evidently perfectly willing to go
through his cross-eXamination.
He's married to her." he said,
gruffiy
"The DEVIL" Bob exclaimed. Every
man in the group started. Zilk had
spoiled u story; We didn't want it to
end that way.
He's married to her." Zilk repeat
ed, land it all happened because I
didn't kill him, when it was plainly up
to me to do it. There's a time for all
things in this world, and the mar who
slips his chance has to pay for it."
Simpson moved uneasily in his seat.
You're still laying for him, eh?" he
asked, with a tinge of disapproval in
his tone.
Zilk smiled. "Pm still laying for
him." he said, 'and the day he breaks
the little kids heart is the day l put
a hole in his. That's all. / just want
ed you follows to know"
What for?" asked Bob.
Zilk smiled again. You'll under
stand LATER he said; and we did, for
Jim Dowly came to the camp next
week.
Ike Simpson, general philanthropist
and friend of tramps. took me into his
tent the next day, and bunked along
side of Zilk. l like the man, and be-
came his partisan. l even found my
self plotting the taking off of DowIy,
as deliberately as if he had been my
own particular enemy instead of Zilk's;
but When he came | avoided him as |
would the pest, and prayed inwardly
that Zilll would't learn he was in the
camp. The news was out the next
day. Zilk took it calmly; he didn't
even load his gun, which disappointed
me somewhat. Afterward l learned
that he never unloaded the critter ex-
cept on %provocation.
it's a strange thing, but the habitues
OF a rough mining camp banker for a
killing with as much vim as the aver
age rancher bankers for a legitimate
funeral. Then, after the killing is
over, they will get in and legislate for
justice with a new supply of vim, or
string the culprit up if he happens to
be unpopular. Zilk had taken us into
his confidence and we were pledged to
play fair with him. We knew that he
wasn't a man to use his dirk in the
dark, and we didn't put any guards on
duty. officers of a mining camp are
not very strong on preventing crime.
The girl Zilk loved? l suppose she
ought to be described somewhere, but
I've always been so disappointed that
l couldn't describe her just as Zilk
saw her, that l draw back from the
task. Zilk wasn't a keen judge of
feminine beauty; he hadn't known
many to compare her with. To him
she vas beautiful. To us? Well, she
was jim Dowly's wife, a dull-looking
mountain girl, rugged, healthy and Or
binary. And Zilk had put her up on
a pedestal, and had thought her worlds
too good for him. Maybe she was.
That wasn't the question we were
called upon to decide.
They had been married only a short
time, Zilk said, and he didn't know
why they had come to the camp. He
seemed to avoid them, on the whole.
| thought he had discarded all
thoughts of vengeance, until one light
when l saw him sitting at the door of
the tent ramming fresh cartridges in
to his revolver; he seemed to be
changing them for mere sport.
I'm going to cut across the pass"
he said. l followed him at o distance.
I was not exactly a tenderfoot, even
in those days, but I had something Of
the preacher in my nature, and it was
liable to crop out at inopportune mo-
ments.
What in the devil did Zilk want to
kill Jim Dowly for, I asked myself.
Zilk was a first-rate fellow and an or
nament to the camp, and the girl
wasn't worth it. Here he was getting
ready to throw up his best chance in
life, and his soul along with it, for