Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1904-01-06

nearer his revolver, but forebore To-
draw it or even clutch its handle.
AS the marshal's searching look
made out Bolande's form, and hunting |
further. found his pistol undethroned,
his teeth set hard upon the last plea
of friendship, and with a perfectly
level voice he said. inquisitorially
calm: you're still here, see."
I'm here" came an answer of equal
phlegm.
And though there was a cry fof irony
in his voice, yet it was quiet. as TIE
marshal declared war thus: Then, by
God, look out for yourself!
With epic equality and speed the
weapons leaped into position. The
spectators, knowing no shots would be
wasted, kept only from the immediate
neighborhood of the fight. Two semi
circles of faint glamour marked the
path of the revolvers as they flashed
from hip to aim. A splitting OF quick
6re-two sharp sniacks of noise, so
twined that neither eye nor ear could
name the earlier, and the revolFers
had spoken. Neither in vain.
Bolande fought with his arm swing
ing free, his whole BODY exposed. The
marshals first bullet hit him in the
| depth of his chest and whirled him
completely around. The next shot
lunged into his unwounded side and
| thrust clean through him.
The marshal, little cooler. little
reader for battle. had crooked his left
arm into a shield for his heart and
lungs, and in its elbow rested his busy
revolver. Bolande's first shot went
high and Selling on his chin. carried
/ away the flesh of half his jaw. The
second missed, flung low and nipped
at his right elbow, SCATTERING the joint
and shaking the siX-shooter from his
grasp. As he bent in fierce haste to
seize it with his left hand. Bolande
shot him through the top of the Shout
der, breaking his spine and paralyZ-
ing the lower part of him. But even as
he quivered to the floor he grasped his
revolver, ard, agonizing into a quick
aim, fired again at Bolande.
The bullet fastened on Bolande's
left leg, and brought the giant thun-
derously down. And now the des.
perate marshal is crying in rabid i'm.
potence: Raise me up. some of you!
Raise me up, and give me another
try at the -"
But Bolande had gathered himself
into superb position, prone on the floor
in the old fashion of Indian fighting
+ His pistol covered his frenzied ad
versary and he said wiz a paterna
quietude Of victory:
> Marshal, think we've hit our las
+ trail. Neither of us is worth any more
lead. Is it qrits?"
Then the lust of killing died on
Z of each heart, out of the heart Of on
. in his honorable failure to sustain thu
! sovereignty of the law, out of thu
heart of the other in his failure to sur
vive trespass on his personal mon
+, archy. And when the savage strength
=. of resolve that supported their wrecke'
and shattered hulks died out, it lief
" them swooning and unconscious a
fainting women.
So they died, stern in wrath, sterl
In love. with no puny cry of contri
ton. no wild appeal for mercy be
= yond the Mystery; each content, rath
. or than proud, that he-and his frien
had died game. They were American:
- With all their faults and all their vii
tues. both necessary to the UPRIGHT
. eous wrenching of a continent ava
. from its unworthy owners. OF sue
y were the builders of the west.-Ovel
- land Monthly.