Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1905-12-26
DAILY SHORT STORY
A CASE OF NERVE.
fOriTnal1

= those days. with sudden stiftings. an,
: it was hard to follow any story from
beginning to end without some break.
and obscure places. We hear of tn,
: good old colony times. Nobody evel
: had anything TO say about the good ole
2 Nevada days. There was a lot of shoot
5 Ing and precious little inquiry into
which OF the shooters had the right
For real STARTER the fight between
> Belcher and Hodges beats anything re-
membered in those exciting days AS
was saying. only bare outline OF the
story preceding it was learned, and
this. such as it is. will give
/. Justus Belcher. hardworking but
unlucky man in the east. finding 1t hard
to make a living for his wife and little
children. heard OF what was going on
in the Silver State-the Comstock lode
had then recently been strickland re-
solved TO go out there and hunt for ore
He fell in with Philip Hodges, and the
two prospected together. Hodges was
strong personality and was used to
taking every one by storm, but points
|
had one thing left out in his makeup. a
| conscience. He and Belcher made n
strike and BeIcher decided TO send for
his family. but before they arrived
| Hodges contrived to swindle Belcher
out of his share in the mine How he
did it is one of the obscure points of the
| story.
| Then followed a hard time for the
| Belchers. Belcher never had any luck
| or was too confiding At any rate he
had nothing on which to support his
family. and they were terribly run
down The two children, one after the
other, sickened and died, and the moth
er was not long in following them. Bel
cher during all his troubles saw his for
mer partner growing prosperous out of
the mine they had owned together. He
never said anything about what was on |
his mind. Some people who knew how |
he had been swindled wondered why he |
bore with Hodges so patiently. But |
Belcher knew that if he got into a |
scrap with Hodges it meant war TO the |
death and dreaded leaving his family |
or what was left OF it to shift for them
selves. SO he stood at his post and let
revenge alone.
The day after Mrs Belcher was bur
led we were in the Empire saloon-the
saloon and the cabins We're all the
places 10 be in in those days-and
Hodges was there too. He was a popu-
lar man In spite OF the general under
standing of the way he had treated
Belcher- As | have said. he was natu-
rally calculated to be prominent, and
his mine was doing better every day.
There's nothing like success to make a
man. outwardly at least. respected At
any rate Hodges was surrounded by n
group OF admirers. "settin' 'em I'D"
when the door opened and Belcher
came in. Evidently Hodges had been
looking for something and must have
seen what he was looking for in Bel
chers eyes. Besides. Belcher had new
or been in the saloon before. Before
any OF us knew what was I'D Hodges
had drawn and shot hole through his
former partner. Belcher fell. and il
was plain 10 all OF us that he was dead. |
We carried him into n back room and
laid him ont on n table There he was
TO remain till action should be taken as
10 his burial .
Ii turned ont that BeIcher's revolver ,
wouldn't work. Whether il was in the .
hammer or the trigger or the revolving
apparatus wasn't known JUST then.
hough everybody knew all about il
lfterward. At any rate. he never got (
n shot. He had snapped il once be
ore Hodges fired. and If IL hadn't been ]
or this cussed luck that had stuck to 8
nm the other man would doubtless | 8
ave been the one to bite the dust. \
'ut as l was saying. there's nothing 4
Ike success to make n man courted
ven lf II Is a matter of luck, and
lodges drop made him all the more 4
Opular Outwardly, at least he was {
5 unrufffed as If he had shot Il bird | )
lie asked us all up to drink by way of Z
eIeDrating his victory. | didn't like | :
i'm and declined. He gave me a look
ut or the corner OF his eye which told i
he that he considered my refusal "a +.
ympathy with his enemy. and he was \,
lght- noticed that his hand shook +
s he poured out his liquor Perhaps 4;
e had presentment of what was I'm
tore for him
They were still drinking when sud h
emily the door OF the back room where ID
lie corpse was laid out opened slowly.
nd there stood the corpse itself.
lodges looked at it and staggered
ack. The corpse. or Belcher. raised =
IS pistol deliberately and drew a bead +
a Hodges There was a momentary +
in Belcher's arm which
conquered by an almost superhuman =
Tort OF the will Hodges was para II
zed as IL confronted by an avenging z
'irit. Belcher fired, and the man who y
Id ruined him fell on his face. Then i
elcher gave way all at once and +
'opped dead. this time for certain. i
There was no human being TO tell of e
w Belcher revived sufficiently to get +
5 revenge after all. There was no q
'ctor near to explain the possibilities q