Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1904-08-24

1
There was no rough outbreak in the
circle. For one reason we wanted the
story, and for another, the miner,
rough as be is, has a good deal of re-
spect for things feminine and likes to
treasure it up.
"She was little silver of thing"
Zilk went IN, land about as pretty as
they make 'em, l reckon. OF course,
she couldn't care for great hulk of
fellow like me, could she? Well, no
body asked her to. I wasn't hanging
around there just to make her tired of
living. l suppose she might have
thought some of trying to reform me
if she had known, but didn't ask her
to take the job. I knew there wasn't
any reform in me, and even if / had
been reformed down to the ground, /
wouldn't have been good enough for
her. | didn't poster her once with any
news of me and my feelings, only l
used to watch for her sometimes, and
would talk a little. I would stand
away out along the trail till her pony
came by-then I'd go back to the camp
and think. Thinking is good for fell
low when he gets sentimental It's
| darned, sight better than talking. That
slip of girl kept me pretty straight
for time, only she didn't know it,
The rum 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
| Zillx cfnnnod ohr11nf1v
| 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, "Dowly? Lord! l must
| have been born hating him! At any
| rate, we had 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, feel as if
I'd be lonesome if l really did take
drop on him, I've got SO used to hating
| him"
What's he got to do with the grip
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,
gruf1y
''The DEVIL" Bob exclaimed Every
man in the group started Zillz had
spoiled our story; We didn't want it to
end that way.
He's married to her." Zilk repeat
ed, land it all happened because /
didn't kill him, when it was plainly up
to me to do it. There's time for all
things in this world, and the man 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 tinge of disapproval in
his tone.
Zilk smiled. I'm still laying for
him." he said, "and the day he breaks
the little kids heart is the day 1 put
a hole in his. That's all. 1 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 l bunked along
side of Zilk. | 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;
hIt whom he oaDoo ov0idod l,;,,, Or
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
t!eat he never unloaded the critter ex-
cept on proTocation.
It's a strange thing, but the habitues
of rough mining camp banker for a
killing with as much vim as the aver
age rancherA bankers for a legitimate
funeral. Then, after the killing is
over, they will get in and legislate for
justice with new supply of vim, or
string the culprit up if he happens to
be unpopular. ZilE had taken us into
his confidence and we were pledged to
play fair with him. We knew that he
wasn't man to use his dirk in the
dark, and we didn't put any guards on
duty. Officers of mining camp are
not very strong on preventing crime.
The girl Zilk loved? 1 suppose she
ought to be described somewhere, but
I've always been so disappointed that
[ couldn't describe her just as ELK
saw her, that l draw back from the
task. Zilk wasn't keen Judge of
feminine beauty; he hadn't known
many to compare her with. To him
she was beautiful. To us? Well, she
was Jim Dowly's wife, dull-looking
mountain girl, rugged, healthy and or
| binary. And Zilk had put her up on
| pedestal. and had thought her worlds
| too good for him. Maybe she was
hot l.