The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1909-07-18

than I would have supposed possible.
Still iii WASH Z long before ! was TO hear
of racket at the Blue Moon that made
mc fancy that my original ideas about
Mr.. Wong S amusements were the cor
rect ones.
AS | said before. the gang didn {
cotton very kindly to the Chink. for
all that he was such an extra fine
chuck provider. There was a fellow
named Jim Blackburn in particular who
had il in for Wong, and never let a
chance go by of making him feel ii.
And one night. Black burn and couple
of his pals who had been hitting up the
whisky bottle pretty free, made up their
minds TO pay Wong a visit and haze
him " little bit. They knew nothing
about the snake, for Brady had kept his
mouth shut regarding the Chnk s pet,
not wishing to make him any more
unpopular than he was. ] always be
]ieyed TO this day that Wong, in some
way got wise To their kind intentions.
Al any rate. when his three consprlng
neighbors stole up TO his shanty quietly
III the dark. Wong was lying snuply
wrapped in Il blanket on the far side OF
the building. He explained afterward
that he was bothered by the heat and
lay down outside for the purpose Of
keeping cool.
Blackburn was in the lead. pushed
in with his pals close behind HIM He
called Wong by name. but there was
no answer, Then one Of them struck n
match and Int a lantern thev carried
They looked around, but the shanty was
empty.
He'll, says Blackburn 'the blasted
Chink ain t here. Wonder what he s
got hidden away in that box7'
" He went over TO the box that lay
N the cornor and raiso5 fbo Tbo
next minute the head of the snake
darted out, rattling like mad, and
Blackburn gave a frightful howl.
- : m a dead man, boys, he yelled;
the snake 8 bitten mel
Cone of his pals turned his gun
loose and blew the head off the rat
tier. and then they began pouring
whisky into Blackburn 10 try and save
his life. Lucky for him, he had been
well filled up with the stuff before
he ever came in the shanty, or il would
have been all day with him. Even as
1T was it was touch and go with him
and ho only cheated the coroner by
the closest kind Of n shave
q" You can imagine that this incident
didn' help towards making Wong any
more of favorite with the crowd At
that there was some of them said
Blackburn only got what he deserved,
and Brady, who is II very obstinate
KIND of cusS when he gets his mind
made mp, said RIGHT out that the Chink
WASH T to blame. ] took n different
view of the affair, for I figured that
the yellow man just naturally laid n
trap for them fellows. But Brady was
boss of the Blue Moon, and it wasu Z
really any of my business, so long as
there hadn t been any fatal results
bout eight weeks after This the
Blue Moon was robbed. and robbed by
some one who knew the lay Of the land
around there, for they got away with
a bunch of bullion at night in a fash
ion that would have been well-niph
impossible for strangers who wouldn't
have known Just where TO put their
hands on the stuff.
"Ths was my business. all right
and ] lost no time in grabbing Mr..
QuoDg Wong, who | felt sure was
mixed up in the deal. But not a
word could we get out of that heathcn
that would help MS any. He simply
stood pat and declared his innocence
What riled me more than ANYTHING
else was the stand that Brady took,
He said ! was prejudiced against the
ChInk. and that there WASH :, an atom
of evidence to connect him with the
robbery. In the long run was
obliged TO let the yellow reptile 90,
and if you IL believe me. the FIRST
thing that Brady did was 10 put him
back as cook at the mine And we
didn t get any trace Of the ROBBERS.