Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-01-25
BY ROGER PQCOCK.
past him. Miss Brumble's socksr' says
e OF THE ARIZONA DESERT,
Author OF "A Frontiersman," etc.
Copyright. 1905. by Little. Brown & Col

All correctr' says the conductor: and the
train went rumblins off into the desert
Then the night operator-which his name
was Bowies-turned round to point back for
his office, and suddenly trod on preacher.
PARDON me-" says the reverend stranger
oh, don't mention it,, says the clerk,
some sarcastic.
Scuse me, sch, may | venture to
Well what's the matter with your
MY poor lost brother, | am wishful to be
infawmed if Misteh Michael Ryan
He's in his car I'm busy
oh, but my deah young friend these
profane cowboys are using such feahful
language, because Misteh Ryan refuses TO
see them, being GAVIN to bed"
The operator turned on mis- heel, and
turned off growing.
You see," the preacher walled after him,
they We got a robber."
The operator began to nibble the bait.
ROBBERS! He swung round sudden
What robber?'
du Chesnay"
They've got him? Great snakes!"
Yes. in bondage. They want to be re-
warded with earthly dross, instead of seek
ing for the blessings and comfort which
alone"
And Ryan won't come out?"
Il think, sch, that Misteh Ryan is ti1nid,
bekase of the shocking profanity of these
misguided men, breaking his windows, too.
Let me admonish you, my brother, to es-
chew the company Of all"
charged along down the platform with the
preacher suffering after him.
mat night operator, Mr.. Nose Bowles,
surging along the platform to Ryans car,
would have bet his last dollar that the
facts We're true. He saw three sure
enough cowboys sitting their horses easy in
front of the private car, and the preacher
was plumb correct about the way they
talked. Bowles saw the prisoner, bound
hand and foot, on a led horse, and that was
jim beyond all doubt, looking plenty dis
couraged. Bowles knew that Ryan had
offered rewards most bounteous for Jims
body; he hungered for portion of the
plumber, and when he swung himself up
the platform on the end of the car his bat
terings on the door was full of enthusiasm.
Il feah," says the preacher, that yore
spelling the paint. Take thought, my
friends, how expensive is paint like thatr'
The cowboys were backing their horses
away beyond range of the car lamps, out
of sight.
Mr.. Ryan" Bowles shouted. urgent
kilograms! Come outI"
niger porter slid open an inch of the
door. You go way" says he; Mass
Ryan he pumb distrackful. Go way"
Let me in, you fool"
Bowles wrenched the door wide open and
jumped into the car; then there were NUT
terings and voices, the lighting up of the
far end of the Pullman; and after a while
came fat young man busting out on the
platform. He wore a fur coat, bare legs,
and slippers, cussing around most peevish
Scuse me- says the preacher, II am
an unworthy minister, a 'Ticular Baptist
and L could not heah the feahful profanity
of these rude men without shedding tears
May esco't you, sch, to see this prisoner"
Bowles and the negro stood on the car
platform watching, while the preacher led
Ryan off into starlight.
My heart quakes at the feah that these
cowboys have GAVIN away. Please step
TINS Way-and ware stumbling on these
sidings-this way, Misteh Ryan-this
way
The voice died away. and Bowles was
putting out to follow, when all of a sud
den he and the negro We're seized from be-
mind, gagged, roped and generally detained
on among the sidings Mr. Ryan had a gag
in his mouth, a rope round his elbows;
then felt himself caught up into the star
light and thrown on a horse, while his
feet were hobbled under the animals belly
In the station a robber was playing tunes
with an axe ON the keys of the telegraph,
and the wires were being Topped with a
pair of shears. Speaking generally, a whole
lot Of silence was being procured, and from,
a robber point of view things worked har-
moniously until the first bunch of riders
went laundering away into the desert.
AS 1t happened, the city marshal and his
deputy, Shorty Breach, straying into these
premises to send off telegram, found the
operator and the negro lying gagged and
bound on the platform; so when they
heard the robbers Looping off they sized up
the whole situation, They were just too
turning out the town.
This news of a fresh outrage hit old Grave
City sudden, surprising, right in the middle
Of sleep time, and the whole town sWarmed
out instant like a hornets nest for war
Some of the people were full of sleep, others
were full of whisky; some had their war
paint, some had a blanket; but all of them
felt they were spat on, all of them howled
for vengeance. For a whole week the town
tribe and the range tribe had been at war,
and here was some idiot making a howl
about robbers! This was certainly another
case of cowboys In town, and the verdict
Mr.. Chalkeye Davies.
1t being some eXpedient first to catch
this Chalkeye. these warriors began 10
make haste and get mounted for pursuit
But from the first things seemed to go
wrong, for one after another the horses
which had been standing in the street went
jumping, roaring crazy, pulling back TIL
their renS broke, bucking off their sad
dies Whirling around the town and stam-
peding away to the desert. The people saw
that loco weed had been prevailing over the
plain sense of these animals; then they
found the stables an aching solitude, and
the telegraph wrecked to prevent them
calling for help, and everything done
thoughtful and considerate by feionious
parties unknown, who had stolen the only
millionaire in Arizona, Soon they remem-
bered there had been q whole lot of I'M
between Mr.. Ryan and Chalk
eye. Thus, the more they considered the
more their noses went sideways of the
truth. smelling the poisonous iniquites of
this Chalkeye outlaw
The town was left afoot, and yet from
private stables horses were raked up,
enough to mount posse of thirty men
BY this time it was too late to chase, but
the marshal reckoned that, with a shine
of bicycle lamps, he could track until day
light, and keep on the robbers trail until
he got more help. He never ruminated on
the thoughtful, prophetic way in which
these motions We're foreseen. Just abreast
of the Jim Crow mine the leading horse
of that posse blew up with a loud bang,
and Shorty Breach was projected into a
prickly pear bush. That is how he got his
new pseudonym, which is Pincushon
Shorty to the present day. On the whole
that posse concluded to go home rather
than face a pavement of live dynamite.