The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1907-03-05
THE EVENING STORY
A COWBOYS Love.
(By Abner Johnson.)

ant thoughts. For years past ne A0u
had no other thoughts than for steers;
Now he had eot on to a new line and
his head was confused and there was
a new feeling in his heart. HIS atu-
tude had been observed from aIar on
by Tom Matthews, felloW-coWpoy'
AS the new arrival came within speak
ing distance, he checked his pinto anu
exclaimed:
"Durn my hide, Jim Traskon, If you
amt homesick!'
You're way off," was the reply.
Then you are thinking OF SUICIDE.
Wrong again."
you can't be--no, dog-gone me
you can't be in Lowell"
Jim made no reply, but the nope
lessness of his look increased. Inc
other dismounted, came nearer, reach-
ed up and laid the palm of his hand on
the suffering mans left side, ABOUT
where the heart is supposed to be: he
held it there for twenty seconds: inen
he stepped back and whispered:
Jim, she's a-palpitating as sure
you're born! It's case OF love. anu
don't you try to fool your Uncle Tom;
Just pour out your confidence, and III
advise to the best of my ability. I've
been right there three or four times
and know something about It,
"You-you won't give me away?"
mot a give"
Nor make fun of me?"
mot on your life. When mans
in love and got 1t bad, Tom Matthew'S
is not man to jump on him. VINO
the maiden, Jim ?"
you know that girl from New York
over on the Horseshoe ranche?"
you don't say! That Miss Walters
who is visiting Kitty Williams? say,
Jim,. you are flying high! That girfs
dollars, and she wouldn't stoop to such
as you and me if we were up to the
neck in quicksand. You can't mean
that you are struck on her?"
\ -ir~ I'D 1nn a
far away over the grazing herd.
''Well, by gosh! And now the ques-
ton is, is she struck on you 2"
81 can't say she is, but, Tom, I m
loving that girl till 1 shall die If /
don't get her. Why, I haven't eaten
enough for the last week to keep q
jackrabbit alive. and there are times
when it seems as if wheels was going
around in my head"
"UmI Took me the very same way
the first time, and 1 had chills and
fever besides. In love with Miss Wal
tiers. Ell? It's a. cheeky thing, Jim
mighty cheeky. I'm afraid you'll have
to take it out in palpitation of the
heart and loss of appetite. If she was
some half-breed,- now. or even the
schoolma am over on Dog river, there
might be a show, but bracing up TO a
millionaire's daughter is flying high,
"But I'm a desperate man, Tom, .
replied Jim. '"This ere thing they call
love has got a rope around both my
legs. It's either matrimony or death
with me. What I want of you is to tell
me how to work it. You've made two
trips to Chicago with cattle and ought
to know all about it,
80 I do-so 1 do. You have just
seen her at distance and fallen in
love with her. Maybe it's the same
way with her. but it won't do to bank
on it, It's safer to argue that she's
also seen you at a distance and don't
know you from one of your herd. You
can't go over to the ranch, and call
on her, because you haven't a boiled
shirt to put on. You can't get an in
PRODUCTION in the regular way, because
Kitty Williams is stuck up and would
give you the cold glare. Her mother is
down on you because one of her cats
got hold of some of your wolf poison.
Jim old man, you are up against it,
"Then I'll hang myself within
week."
"Unn! Just the way felt the first
time. Let me see? There ought to be
a way-there surely ought. It mustn't
be any common way. It's got to be
hair-raiser or It wont go. If you don or,
a house falling on her you can't hold
her thoughts for five minutes. Jim
Traskon, are you ready for desperate
venture %
nected with that girl. Yes, sir, III
fight a dozen grizzlies one after another
for her sake.
''Then when you come in tonight
we'll have a talk. I've got a plan, and
I'm quite sure she's bound to work.
Say nothing but come and see me.
It was true that Miss Nettie Walters
was visiting Miss Kitty Williams,
daughter of Major Williams, of the
Horseshoe ranch. 1t was also true that
she was the daughter of a wealthy resi-
dent of New York. Both girls rode
out on their ponies almost every day,
and as a matter of fact they had sew
eral times passed within a few rods of
the cowboy-this particular cowboy.
They had given him no more notice,
however than they had given his herd.
There was talk that evening be-
tween Jim Traskon and Tom Matthews
and when it was concluded the hope
less lover was no longer hopeless In
fact he had been brought around to
realize that life was worth living. He
even executed a shuttle and INDUCED
in suppressed whoopS of exultation.
Two DAYS later fortune favored him
with a broad smile. At ten o'clock in
the forenoon, he caught sight OF the
New York girl riding alone. Not
dogs with her, and the animals were
doing their best to scare up a rabbit
to be run down. When she was half
a mile away big jack broke cover,
and away went girl ana pony ana oogs.
IT took Jim Traskon just two minutes
to adorn himself in the Indian trap
pings which he had brought along for
the occasion by the advice of Tom
Matthews Then he started the chase.
HIS get-up was good and his war
whoops had the true ring. OF course.
he depended on Miss Williams having
told her girl friend that some of the
sioux Indians had left their reserva-
ton and were committing outrages
along the skirts of the valley. AS a
matter of fact, this information had
been Impaired. but it hadn't deferred
the New Yorker from riding out alone.
She heard the whoops and looked back
Then she gave her pony the switch
In her go-off she rode straight away
from home, and at the end of a three
mile chase her pony was winded and