The Cairo bulletin., 1905-12-24

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forigiuoll
After the tragedy Iieapio trie,i 70 pick
up the thread Of VITA Il was all about,
but Nevada was q wild country ~
those days, with sudden shlftings. and
L was hard TO follow amy story from
beginning to end without some breaks
and obscure Places. We hear Of the
good old colony times. Nobody eYcT
had anythlng to say about the good old
NeYada days. There was lot Of shoot
ING and precious littfe inquiry into
which OF tire shooters had the right.
For q real startler the fight between
Beleher and Hodges beats anything re,
meinbered in those exciting days As |
was saying. only bare Outline of the
story preceding It was learned, and
this, such as II Il. win give.
Justus Becher. Woodworking but
unlucly man In the east, finding it hard
TO make Il living for bis wife and little
children, heard of what was going ON
IN Tie silver State--the Comstock lode
had then recently been struck and re
solved 10 go out there and hunt for ore.
He fell In with Phfip Hodges, and the
tvo prosnected together. Hodges was
strong personality and was used 70
taxing every ono by storm, but points
in this story so TO indicate that ne hea
had one thing left cut Ia bis makeup, 4
conscience. lie aud Belcher made 4
strike and Bclchcr decided to send for
his family but before they arrived
Hodges conriyed to swindle Bclcher
ont of his share in The mine How he
did il is Que Of the obscure points Of the
story
Then followed a hard time for the
Belcllcrs. Belcher never had any luel1
or was too couhdtng 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. sickcped and died, and the moth
or was moi long in following them. Bel
cher during al bis trouble saw his for
Nor partner growing prosperous Out q
iha nline ines lad who'd oycthet SIC
refet said an.th!ng aboue What was "a
his mind, Some people who knew how
he had been swirdled wondered why he
borg wUh Hodges 50 patiently But
Belcher knew that If be got into a
scrap with Hodges Il meant war TO the
death and dreaded leaving bis family
or what was left Of 10, shift for them
selves, So he stood al his post and let
revenge alone.
The day after Mrs. Belcher was bur
led we We're in the Empire saloon The
saloon and the cabins were all the
places to be in ia those days-and
Hodges was there too, lie was popu
lar n1n in spite Of the general under
standing Of the way he had treated
Belcher As have said. ho was natu
rally calculated 70 be prpulipent' and
bis nllue was doing better every day.
There's Bothing lihe success to make o
man, outVardly 't least. respected. ~
ans ratr Hodges was surrounded lay .
group Of admirers "setijn' 'em Up
when the door opened aud Bclcher
came 90. Evidently Hodges had been
looking for something and must have
seen wfat be was looking for I'm Bel
chcr's eyes. Ecsides. Bclcier had new
er been ga the saloon before. Before
any Of US knew what was mp Hodges
had drawn and shot hole through his
former partner Belcher fell and il
was plain 20 an Of us that he was dead.
We carried him into back room and
laid him out on table. There he was
10 reman till action should be taken as
10 his burial
II turned out that Belcher's revolver
wouldn't work. Whether II was in the
hammer or the trigger or the revolving
apparatus wasn't known just then.
Though everybody knew al about IL
aftcrward - any ratc. hc never got
On "a shot. lie had snapped il once be-
fore Hodges fired. aItl II it hadn been
for this cussed luck that had stuck %
him the other man wOnld doubtless
have been Tho one 70 bite the dust
But as / was saying. licre's nothing
Ike success 60 make n man c1urtPf
oven If ft IS q matter e luck aud
Hodges' drop made hin an The more
popular GutwardlY. At least he was
as unrufsel as If he had shot 9 bind.
he as'se3 a. an un drink hy rav EFF
cclclr3ung his victory didn'l lio
hiII aud declined. He gave me q l13k
out OF the corner Of las eye which told
me that Dc considered Iny refu al as
sympathy with bis cucmg. and be was
right noticed that his hand shook
as b. poured out bis liquor. Perhaps
he hs0 n Presenfnent Of what was in
store ror him.
They were suu drinking when sud-
denly the door Of The back room where
the corTse was laid ont opened slowly.
and there stood the corpse itself
Hodges lo0kci at ID and staggered
hack. Tho corpse. or Belcher. Raised
bis pistol deliberately anf drav bead
On Hedges there was \ mom=Rt 1l-
uHzteadiness II Beiehers aI.n sLleA
b. 11-iE-cI ~ ~ -l-rs= -r--tl 1er
~ - IL III. tol-ss - & .r. -