Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-09-03
real e9 BAD MAN


Nome" said an official from Colorado in
one OF TIE departments. Jim was the last
man Id ever figure on to make finish be-
tween blankets. He was as game man as
ever accepted grub stake to hunt Tor pay
rock. When l krtew him back in the early
eighties, and later, when the Greece excite
ment was putting the hectic flush into the
cheeks OF all the old-lime prospectors, Jim
was SO dauntiess'Sa cnance-taker that
USED TO think that nothing short OF rear
busy bolt of lightning would ever get the
breath out of him. He wasn't afraid OF
anybody He stuck up some good men IN
MS Jay at the points of his Ola saweu-on
guns, just to indicate that he was rignt
there and in the game but he never took
a mean advantage nor flashed gun untii
MS minute to do 1t had arrived. The NICK
aame SILVER Wire Jim Was fastened on "
CorDy because once, down In Arizona, al
ter he had been cut up a lot in a bowie
nght' ne Sat down and very carefully sew
ea up the torn places on his person with
SILVER SLY wire; the sawbones of the camp nav
ing been absent at the time.
II happened to be in Durango, Col. when
tnlS FAMOUS prospectOr and tanner OF plzen
bad men did one of the nervieSt jobs or MS
me- jim had brother living in Durango.
young fellow in his twenties. Jim looked
upon this brother as good deal Of a dude
ana oldnt have much commerce with MIN.
one day, though. while Jim was IN
Leadville, he got a letter from this kid
brother OF his, saying that he'd been abused
in Tom Fleets faro bank in Durango He'd
gone up against Fleets brace game. and
after the brace bank had got all of his
money. some $1,000, Fleet and his under
strappers had dropped the youth out of a
second-story window, and the fall had
broken one of his legs
silver Wire Jim Corby made Decline
LOT durango ten minutes after he got that
letter in Leadville
NOW; this Tom Fleet man was pretty
eVll omDrey for anybody to play tag with.
he q been running flyer faro layoutS all
over the southwest and the Rocky mountain
country Tor years. and he'd never been
known TO duck or banch when the tough
est of his victims had started in to pune
ture the fixtures after dropping their rolls.
lie was a gun tanner and a knife fighter
proper. and up to the time of this Silver
WIRE Jim incident nobody had ever called
him and got by with it.
RECT ran four faro tables at his Du-
range plant, and he'd picked every one OF
me TOUR lookouts for his quickness on
,he Trigger. .Corby knew Fleet, and he
kheW an ABOUT those four sudden PROPOSE
t1ons VINO sat in the lookouts' chairs, too.
All the same. at 10 o'clock on the night
after he d got that letter from his brother
ne showed up at the entrance to Fleets
iayou.. he hadn't been to his broken
see Fleet.
There was half Greaser on the door.
ana inns Greaser. under Instructions tried
W teH Sorpy that he couldn't get in Corby
gave the half-breed slap in the face and
men the loot The next instant he was in
from from side to side, so as not only to cover
rect VINO sat al a desk. and the Tour
iooKouts. but the whole bunch who sat
playing at the faro tables.
eet; said Corby to the boss of the
pant, who sat at his desk like man
carved out of stone come over here tn
me-a-runnin'' W
Fleet got up from his desk in a hurry
ana walked over close to Corby at pretty
nifty pace. fi..-, : pe'''
:" That's near enough said Corbv still
i. MS guns so as to keep the lookouts
III oruer. Fleet what's this I'm, a-hearin.
TiiIe?' "e "'o'hei
- He lost his coin and made a beef, col,
fieet, with bad look liz his eve. Then.
the window -
Who done the droppin :? inquired Corby
move of the lookouts
Fleet hesitated until Corby's bloodshot.
hre- splitting eyes pinned him
d1d, he replied then.
" SO heard said Corby quietly Then.
in voice that could be heard a block. he.
gave the command:
An hands sashay to the corner over
yonder, indicating by nod of his head
the corner of the room where there was the
most space. The men in front Of and be-
hind those tables knew that 1t was a lottery
as to who'd get 1t first If the order wasn't
instantly obeyed. They rose as one man.
dealers, lookouts and players and glided
into the corner.
You stay where you stand Corby said to
Fleet The boss had turned as if to join
the crowd in the corner. 1t would have been
so perfectly easy for one of the gang over
In the corner to have plugged Silver Wire
Jim where he stood that it seems peculiar
that none of them took a chance. l suppose
1t was because they perfectly well knew
that in the shooting Corby would do as he
went down. each would have a chance to
get some Of the lead.
Fleet said Corby. never taking his
eyes off the crowd in the corner you are
more different kinds of a skunk tinhorn and
four-flush than I've got hairs on my head
amt you?
: " Yes replied Fleet. swallowing a guIp
A man who looks into a pair of Pickering
gunmuzzles will agree to any old PROPOSE
ton.
land you don't want to do no more
brace work in this yere camp, do you? said
Corby, still talking quietly.
No answered Fleet.
".Well,' said Silver Wire Jack, that oein'
the case, you kin jes' pick up them four
tables, one by one, and chuck em out O.
that window. that you dropped my dude
brother from
Fleet wheeled, with curse and picked
up the faro table nearest the window. 1t
landed on the plank sidewalk below with a
crash Gold and silver and paper money,
chips and ca rds and box went with it,
1.-The next one" said Corby, who stood
there waving his guns, as if he wasn't in
danger of instant death from the men
huddled in the corner
Fleet threw the next nearest table out,
with all on top of it. Then he tossed the
third and fourth tables out, for Corby had
him lmpaled with his eye and covered with
one of his guns.
Now said Silver Wire Jack, after
Fleet had thrown the last table out of the
window and stood regarding Corby for all
the world like a grizzly with a whole fore
quarter in trap, you follow your layout
"Corby was half a head shorter in stature
and weighed fully forty pounds less than
Fleet, who was a giant. But he suddenly
jabbed his guns into his belt, the gang in
the corner never making a move and in
two bounds he had Fleet around the mid
die Fleet, before being grabbed in that
way had made a dive for his desk to get
a gun but he wasn't sudden enough Corby
lifted him clear of the ground as a grocery
boy lifts a ten-pound sack of -four and
Fleet landed on the plank sidewalk his
left leg broken below the knee. That was
the exact place where Corby's brothers leg
had been broken when Fleet had hurled
him out of the same window.
LAS soon as he had made the toss, Corby
wheeled about again and got his guns out.
and then he backed out of the door that